History Deferred
by prometheus55
Summary: It's said that a single decision can alter the path of millions and the shape the galaxy. Most think those choices are epic struggles between good and evil. No one could have ever imagined that such a decision would have to do with the negligent placement of a simple wooden crate. Forty-seven years later the consequences of that decision have changed course of the entire galaxy.
1. Chapter One - Contact

**History Deferred**

Chapter One – Contact

Cheyenne Mountain Complex

Colorado Springs, Colorado, North American Union

September 6, 2042

It was the place where it had all begun. Well sort of. Logically she knew that it had happened many times in the past. In ancient Egypt, in 1945, even earlier if the discovery of a second gate beneath the Antarctic ice pack was any indication. But in her mind it had truly begun here a half century earlier. It was here that the first mission to Abydos was conducted, where the first and only team had traversed through the stargate, had discovered a history long since forgotten and killed a god. And it had been here that it had all come to an end.

It would've still been nothing but a historical footnote, shrouded behind classifications and denials if not for the 'incident'. Jennifer snorted. It was a polite way of saying that someone had fucked up. Somewhere along the line the facility that the gate had been stored in had fallen through the bureaucratic cracks and money for its maintenance had been reassigned. Then there'd been that heavy snowstorm in '38. Goddamned global warming and now there were snowstorms in Southern Nevada on a regular basis. The two factors had combined in typical fashion and the roof had caved in, literally. A support beam had fallen on the gate and smashed its storage crate. Next thing anyone knew there was an explosion and suddenly the gate was operational again.

According to all accounts the gate had only connected to Abydos and that gate had been buried back in the late 20th. So the powers that be had logically assumed that someone had dug it up again. Then they panicked in predictable military fashion. Something had to be done about this new potential threat. Except for one problem. It had been forty-seven years since the Abydos expedition and everyone was either dead or close to it. Well except one that is.

Early in her career Jennifer had garnered the attention of one of Project Stargate's great scientific minds. She still recalled that day when Samantha Carter had shown up in her lab, equal parts fascination and condemnation coloring her first words. What had begun with insubordination, resentment and the arrogance of youth had matured into mutual respect for each other. They'd made a good team, something the Air Force had recognized and exploited. When Sam had been transferred to NASA to work on the VentureStar project, she'd followed, a barely commissioned lieutenant. For five years they'd worked on getting that ugly bird off the ground, finally succeeding in '07 to much fanfare.

It hadn't been long before Sam had let her in on the greatest project of her life. Jennifer would've thought anyone else crazy if she'd heard the same words. But not Sam. A device that created artificial wormholes through subspace. The technology involved had to have been ludicrously complex and so far beyond anything on Earth as to be mistaken for magic. But along with her stories of the great mystery had come resentment. After Abydos the Air Force had been happy to sweep the whole thing under the rug and forget about it. All that potential wasted due to the ignorance and fear of a few bureaucrats who couldn't come close to understanding what it represented.

It had become something of an obsession of hers over the years. When Sam had finally retired in 2033, Jennifer had taken up the torch. A general herself, she'd gained access to the classified files. She'd learned of the discovery of the second gate in the Antarctic, discovered during an oil survey in 2014. She'd also learned that the first gate's control device had been recovered by an opportunistic CIA during the chaos following the failed Second Red Revolution of 2021. She'd even seen the recovered footage of the experiments on the gate in the twilight days of the Second World War.

But for all her lobbying and political maneuvers, the gate would've remained off limits were it not for that stupid accident. Idly she wondered which idiot accountant she had to thank for that. Sam had laughed her ass off when she'd told her. Now in her late 80s, the retired scientist had all but begged her protégée for access to the gate, something that Jennifer didn't have the heart to refuse. Besides she still held her classified status, even if the United States Air Force hadn't existed for almost a decade.

"Hell of a thing isn't it," said the retired general, observing the technicians below swarming over the alien ring. "I haven't been here in almost a half century and nothing's changed."

"Well they didn't exactly do anything with this place after the gate was deep-sixed," replied Jennifer with a shrug. "Especially when NORAD was replaced back in '21 and moved to Liberty Station."

"Biggest boondoggle of all time I swear," said Sam as she shook her head.

"Nah, that was the SLAMIS system," laughed Jennifer, referring to the array of missile defense satellites that guarded North America and her allies from nuclear attack. "Should've taken your advice and gone with free-electron lasers and the LFTR reactor. But I guess the thought of strapping a nuke to a laser was too much of a draw."

"Too many people from the Reagan days that remembered Star Wars."

"General Hailey," interrupted a voice from behind. "We've completed the work on the super-conductive interface."

"Thank you airman," replied Jennifer, taking the proffered slate and offering a loose salute. "I hope you don't mind Sam but I made a few improvements on your original design."

Carter just shrugged as she mirrored the data to her own slate. "Well considering I designed the system back in 1996 I would hope you would've fixed a few things," she noted as she scrolled though the data. "Back then we had to use three Cray supercomputers just to get the gate to respond, all of which combined had less processing power than my watch. Hmm, you've used room temperature superconductors in the interface, eliminating the need for a cooling system."

"And I've added a cut down seismic counter-resonance dampener to handle the shaking. Once we have the system calibrated you won't get so much as a single vibration outa the thing. We've refined the control program to take into account all of the diagnostic signals the gate produces too. We're actually using a modified version of the software from the original control device that we snagged from the Russians."

"Why not use it then?"

"I considered that but we still don't know what all the coding does and I didn't want to risk hooking it up to our systems before we do. The thing is incredibly complex and we only understand about half its functions. Besides we're here to learn about the gate, not just use it and we can do that better with our own tech."

"You've also added an iris I see."

"Zero-gee titanium ceramic alloy reinforced with non-organic carbon nanotube weave and synthetic diamond. That's about as strong as it gets and nearly ten times stronger than the original iris' specs. And we decreased the distance from the event horizon from three micrometers to one. That should prevent even sub-atomic particles from reintegrating."

"In case someone decides to attack us with a particle beam," concluded the elderly scientist with a nod of approval. "That's something we didn't consider back in the old days. And is this a plasma window?"

"Yep. We've decided to add it as a secondary line of defense. Should help absorb any excess radiation and pressure that could be exerted against the iris. You were the one who theorized that it might be possible that a whole host of exotic particles could traverse a wormhole."

"Nice, but that's a hell of a power draw…," replied Sam, only to be cut off at alarms began blaring.

"Attention all personnel. We have an incoming wormhole forming. All personnel report to defensive positions."

The two just looked at each other before rushing down the staircase to the control room below. Of all the spaces within the facility, this one had changed the most. Long gone were the banks of supercomputer clusters with their blinking lights and mechanical readouts, replaced by holographic display panels that provided a wealth of data on the operation of stargate and the facility at large. The starmap had been replaced with a tactical holo-tank that filled up much of the space, currently inactive and awaiting final installation.

"What've we got?" demanded Hailey.

"The gate began dialing thirty-seven seconds ago," replied the sergeant manning the control terminal. "Five of the seven required chevrons have illuminated so far and as per protocol I ordered defensive measures throughout the facility."

"Good. Engage the iris and activate the plasma window as well. I want that to be standard protocol for all unexpected incoming wormholes in the future."

"Yes ma'am," replied the technician as he tapped two commands on the haptic interface. Beyond the synth-diamond windows, silvery panels slid closed within the aperture of the gate, a shimmering green field appearing over them as they finished sealing. All was still for a moment before a loud whooshing sound resonated throughout the room, a shimmering wave of blue reflecting off the concrete walls behind the gate.

"Anything?" asked Hailey as she held her breath.

"No impacts on the iris have been detected ma'am."

"Scan for electromagnetic anomalies," ordered Carter, nominally the second in command of the facility.

"Scanning. I'm detecting what appears to be an old style analogue radio signal in the twenty-five megahertz band."

"Push it up on the speakers."

A static filled the room, pops, clicks and hisses playing for a moment before a voice spoke, "I repeat. This is Doctor Daniel Jackson calling Earth. Please respond." The voice was weary and tired; the voice of a man well into the latter years of his life. But it still inspired a shocked silence throughout the room.

"Doctor Jackson?" asked Hailey incredulously. "Didn't he die during the original mission in 1995?"

"According to Colonel O'Neill's reports," replied Carter with a frown, "and the reports of the rest of his team. He was supposedly killed in a nuclear explosion along with the alien that was masquerading as 'Ra'."

"According to the official reports," sighed Hailey in resignation. She'd been in the service a long time and knew that many 'inconvenient' facts tended to get covered up before they ever made it onto paper. "Open a channel on the same frequency sergeant."

When she received a nod, Hailey began, "This is General Jennifer Hailey of the North American Union Air Force. We're receiving your transmission."

There was another few seconds of silence before a reply came through, "I don't… I can't. This is Doctor Jackson. I never thought I would ever get through. I've been trying for so long."

"Doctor Jackson, if that is indeed who you are. You were reported killed during the original mission to Abydos forty-seven years ago. How can you explain this discrepancy?"

A chuckle filled the airwaves before the archeologist replied. "During the original mission I was, well I guess the best way of saying it is 'gifted' with a woman. The natives thought that we were gods since we'd come through the stargate and they believed that we wanted tribute. Over the mission I came to know Sha're and we fell in love. After we killed Ra, I decided to stay behind with her and asked Jack to lie about what happened. I guess he decided to tell the military that we were all killed. I had the gate buried to prevent any further missions."

"Colonel O'Neill reported that you and the native population were killed in a nuclear explosion that also killed 'Ra', whatever he was."

"Ra did die in a nuclear explosion aboard his ship. But it was in low orbit at the time," replied Daniel in a knowing tone. "The threat was neutralized but I knew that if the American government learned of the humans here they would never have known peace. I guess in my mind I had images of a modern Indian reserve being created out here."

Hailey nodded to herself at that. It wasn't that she agreed with his reasons for keeping things hidden but she could well understand the logic behind them. "If that's so, then why have you contacted us now?"

"I've actually been trying for decades now," replied Daniel wearily. "A few months after the expedition returned to Earth I uncovered a hidden chamber beneath the pyramid here. It contained hundreds of stargate addresses and I thought that the information needed to get back to Earth, regardless of the consequences. If the stargate had only led to Abydos then so be it but according to my studies it can actually connect to gates across the galaxy."

Hailey's eyes widened to comical proportions, mirrored by her mentor. They'd both theorized this possibility for decades but had never been able to test it. It had never made sense that there were only two gates given the number of coordinate symbols available to them. Regaining herself, Hailey replied, "Have you ever tried dialing any of them doctor?"

"Of course. But none of them ever worked. Over time I theorized that the coordinates may have become invalid because the planets they were on may have moved further away from Abydos. The cartouche here is several thousand years old."

"Of course," exclaimed Sam as she smacked her head. "The expanding universe theory posits that all bodies are constantly moving apart. In the thousands of years since that map was created the coordinates would've changed."

"Who was that?"

"Oh sorry doctor. My name is General Samantha Carter, retired. I worked closely with Doctor Langford on the Stargate after the expedition returned until the program was shut down."

"So then you know what happened to her?" asked the archeologist in a sad tone.

"She died in 2014, I'm sorry. She always spoke of you fondly doctor. She said that without you her life's work would've come to nothing."

"She was a good friend," replied the elderly voice. "Yet another that I wasn't able to say goodbye to." An awkward pall fell over the room, broken only by the occasional crackle of the radio feed. After what felt like several minutes but in reality was only a few seconds he continued, "Anyway, I think that you should send a team. If we can figure out a way to correct for the planetary drift then we can use the stargate to explore the entire galaxy."

It only took a few seconds of thought and a shared glance with her mentor before Hailey replied. "I think I can agree to that Doctor Jackson. I'll assemble a team and have them ready as soon as possible. Before we disconnect is there anything you need?"

There was a slight chuckle followed by a sneeze. "A box of tissues would be nice. As you can guess I ran out a long time ago."

A smile spread across Jennifer's face. "I'll see what I can do. Expect further contact with the next five hours."

"I'll be waiting."


	2. Chapter Two - Inception

**History Deferred**

Chapter Two – Inception

_Of course I'd read the reports, seen the pictures and watched the footage during the prep for what was then just another assignment. Even then I had trouble believing that it wasn't some sort of joke. But the first time seeing the plasma leaping from that big metal ring… well it's not something I'll forget anytime soon._

- Colonel Myra Silva, 2044

Cheyenne Mountain Complex

Colorado Springs, Colorado, North American Union

September 6, 2042

Myra wasn't sure about this new posting, deep in the bowels of Cheyenne Mountain. Having cut her teeth during the Second Red Revolution and come into her own on the heat blasted plains of Africa and the frozen wastes of Siberia, the transfer to Colorado hadn't been well received. She'd been responsible for planning the raid into Mogadishu back in '39 that had whipped out the last of Al Qaeda's leadership. She'd taken out that old fossil al-Zawahiri with a round right between the eyes. But here she was playing nursemaid to a three story metal ring three hundred meters under a mountain.

Granted it wasn't all bad. Nearby Colorado Springs was a nice change of pace from what passed for civilization in the developing world and the beer was cheap for servicemen down at O'Malley's. Her new boss hadn't proven too full of herself either; a condition that tended to afflict flag officers in her experience. And she had to admit it was a bit cool exploring the old home of NORAD and seeing some of the leftovers from the Cold War upstairs.

Not that she was doing any exploring at the moment. She'd been summoned for an emergency briefing and was waiting for her new CO to get off the phone in her office. Idly she wondered why they hadn't installed a full teleconferencing suite yet. But given the state of the base there were probably better things to do. Cheyenne Mountain had all but been abandoned in 2022 after the opening of Liberty Station and it showed. Everything was vintage 20th century tech from the lighting to the computers.

Around her sat her team, each absorbed in their own minds. To her left Major Fareed Serrano was running a laser sharpener over his karambit, each pass honing its edge well beyond sharp and closer to mono-molecular. That knife had been with him for almost three years; she'd been with him when he'd picked it up just before an op in the Philippines. It wasn't just a souvenir either. Fareed had refined its use to a near art form and only he knew just how much blood its titanium blade had drank since.

Across from her was Captain Roger Simmons, their resident tech specialist. She'd yet to encounter a system he couldn't break through and while they all had some sort of technical training, he took it to another level. At the moment he was sitting with his eyes closed, seemingly asleep. Myra knew better. Behind his eyelids he was absorbed in the net; his cerebral mods allowing him access to the vast online world at the speed of thought.

And beside him was the last member of her team, Master Sergeant Adrienne Vega, the team's sniper. Despite almost a century of vids to the contrary, most snipers were rather well adjusted men and women, no less unstable than the average person walking down the street. Adrienne was the exception to that rule and were it not for her almost supernatural skill with a rifle she would've been thrown out years ago. She was anti-social bordering on introverted and usually maintained a mood that could charitably be described as dark. But Myra had also seen her drill a warlord right between the eyes at over two kilometers on a windy day in Chad using nothing but an old SVD Dragunov and without a spotter. Many considered her to be a modern day Lyudmila Pavlichenko, especially considering she already had almost two hundred fifty kills to her name.

"Thank you all for waiting," said General Hailey as she exited her office. "I'll get right to it. Approximately two hours ago the Stargate activated and we received a signal from someone purporting to be Doctor Jackson. While I'm not completely convinced it was the same man who went through in '95, he did provide enough details that I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt."

"And we're going to go through?" asked Silva off handedly.

"Yes colonel," replied Hailey simply. She'd spent enough time with Special Forces over the years not to be put off by their lack of formality. "Full combat load out in case this is a trap. I trust you've studied the AARs from Colonel O'Neill's mission?"

"Yes ma'am," replied the colonel with a shrug, "but they reported the local populous along with Jackson KIA'd."

"So we were led to believe. But it appears that he deliberately falsified his report after being convinced to do so by Jackson, apparently out of the somewhat understandable belief that the US military would exploit the local population. I gather that he wasn't exactly a fan of the government."

"Not all that unbelievable," added Simmons as he opened his eyes. Myra could still see the data flowing behind his eyes. It was a rare moment when he wasn't absorbed in the net to some degree or another. "I don't have to tell you all about some of the less savory things that took place in secret back then."

"True enough," agreed Hailey without preamble, having had a few hours to mull it over. "Regardless of the reason for Colonel O'Neill's omissions, we have an opportunity here that we have to exploit. Doctor Jackson claims to have uncovered a map of sorts that has addresses to hundreds if not thousands of Stargates across the galaxy. We need that information."

"And if he's lying?" asked Fareed. "What if he's grown tired of playing in the sand and wants to come home?"

"Then we need to know that too," replied the general.

"Understood," said Silva, speaking for her team and cutting off all remaining comments.

"Good. Get geared up and be ready in the embarkation room in one hour. Dismissed."

* * *

Standing at the base of the ramp an hour later, Silva couldn't help but feel the butterflies ripping at her insides. She was about to make history, something no self-respecting member of any Special Forces unit wished for. Around her she was sure her team felt the same way, even Adrienne, despite their outward stoicism.

Checking her weapon one last time, she waited as the inner ring ground its way through its dialing sequence, each chevron lighting up as it accepted the specified pictograph in turn. As it approached number six a faint vibration filled the room, quickly extinguished by the dampeners as they automatically adjusted and applied the correct counter resonance frequency. And finally the seventh chevron was accepted, the gate coming to life in a great outward explosion of plasma and exotic particles that science had yet to quantify or name. This wave collapsed under its own weight seconds later, slamming back into the newly established event horizon and generating ripples that radiated outwards and reflected off the edges.

"You have a go," announced Hailey from the control room as the team approached the shimmering pool.

"Anyone have anything inspiring to say?" asked Simmons, sarcasm and irony dripping from his words.

"Yeah," replied Adrienne, a rare smirk crossing her lips, "let's not fuck this up."

"Amen," added Silva as she stepped though into the ether of the universe. Time ceased to mean anything beyond in the non-Euclidian realm of subspace, the vague image of lights, motion and energy imprinting itself upon her consciousness as she was ripped apart, converted to energy and rebuilt on the other side like a piece of cheap furniture. It was over as soon as it began, a thin layer of condensation covering her as she exited, the remnants of the higher humidity from the mountain evaporating in the moisture starved desert air that filled the arrival chamber.

Her team stepped through a moment later, each examining the room that presented itself. Waiting for them was a group of humans led by an old man with primitive looking glasses perched upon his nose, dressed in a loose flowing robe of tans and beiges. Behind him was a rough looking group armed with swords, crossbows and several vintage M16s. The two groups stood examining each other as the stargate disengaged behind them.

Slowly Silva stepped forward, her rifle hanging from her chest. "Doctor Jackson I presume?"

"Yes that's me," replied the old man, holding out his hand in greeting.

Taking the offered hand and ignoring the curious look he presented she replied, "Colonel Myra Silva, North American Special Operations Command."

"I'm glad I was finally able to reach you. I've been trying for so long."

"You can thank those idiot bean counters in DC for that," replied the colonel with a grin.

"I'm sorry?" replied Daniel in confusion.

"Long story. This is the rest of my team, Fareed, Roger and Adrienne," she continued, nodding to each in turn. "So I take it you've got something to show us."

"Yeah. This way," replied the old archeologist as he turned and led them out of the chamber. "I found it about three months after Jack and the rest returned to Earth. Over the years I've excavated most of the pyramid and found many interesting things about Ra and his race."

"The reports state that Ra was the last of his kind," interjected Simmons as he ran a quick search to make sure he hadn't missed anything.

"That was what I thought at first," replied Daniel as they exited into the blazing sun. "But I was wrong. Ra was the leader of his race, the Goa'uld. His official title was 'Supreme System Lord' and apparently he held dominance over hundreds if not thousands of his kind. But as you can imagine my information is a bit out of date."

"Understandable," replied Fareed. "This place looks like it's been abandoned for centuries."

The group descended the thick packed sand slowly so as to allow Jackson the extra time he needed. He wasn't the young man he'd once been. "So what have I missed back on Earth?" he asked idly only to receive a few dark chuckles in reply.

"Forty-seven years doctor," replied Myra as she held up her right arm, making a show of examining it. She'd lost both her arms, her right leg and half of her left during the waning days of the Second Red Revolution in an ambush. A decade earlier she would've been discharged and sent home as a war casualty. But technology had advanced to the point where a missing limb wasn't the impediment it had once been. Over the years she'd replaced more and more of her body to the point where she was more machine than man. It had become somewhat of a tradition in the Special Forces, somewhat joking referred to the cyborg squad by the rest of the armed forces.

Daniel was surprised by her show. He'd assumed the colonel's arms were covered in some sort of advanced armor. That assumption was broken as he watched her fingers contort in ways no human hand could hope to do before folding in on themselves to be replaced by some sort of machine gun. Then the process reversed itself until she once again had a hand. Next she extended a wickedly sharp blade from the back of her forearm, retracting it a moment later. Her grin at his look of surprise told him he'd missed quite a bit indeed.

"A lot of things have changed over the years."

"I can see that," he replied lamely. "What… I mean why did you…"

"Have this done?" she finished. "Didn't have much of a choice doctor. Not after Yaroslavl."

"In Russia?" asked the archeologist.

"It was back in early '23 and the war had been raging for almost two years at that point. My fire team was caught in a commie ambush and I was the only survivor. The cocksuckers left me for dead, bleeding out in the snow. Next thing I know I was waking up in Walter Reed missing my arms and legs."

"The US went to war with Russia?"

"Not quite. It started as a civil war between the progressives and the ultranationalists and communists. But then Grozny got nuked and everyone jumped right on in. I was just a snot-nosed first lieutenant back then with way too much testosterone, despite all evidence to the contrary," she added with a smirk, her team chuckling behind her. "I ended that war missing half my body, a captain's insignia and an invite to join the rangers."

"How bad was it?" asked Jackson, a shiver going down his spine at the mention of nuclear weapons.

"Almost six million dead. Russia is now broken up into fifteen separate countries. The European ones aren't too bad and North America and Japan support a Far East protectorate. But Siberia is ruled by a bunch of rogue, nuclear armed successor states that go at each other like a bunch of feral alley cats. And they aren't too shy about throwing their weight around to get what they want in the world stage. Kind of like the old North Korea back a few decades ago times eleven. Plenty of business for us in SpecOps."

"I can't believe it," replied Daniel as he led them through the bowels of the pyramid. "What could push men to use nuclear arms? I thought they were a thing of the past after Reagan negotiated the START treaty."

"And then Obama negotiated a second one back in '09," Myra replied with a shrug. "But that fell apart in '14 when Putin pulled Russia out of it. And things kind of went to hell after that."

Daniel shook his head sadly as they entered the map chamber. "The more things change… anyway here we are. I've spent years trying to map these constellations in the Abydos sky but I couldn't get them to work on the gate. Maybe you'll have more luck."

"Simmons," ordered Myra simply as the tech specialist snapped out of his gawking.

"Damn, you could buy an island in the Caribbean with all this gold. Anyway let's do this. Could everyone move back to the entrance please," he said as he walked to each of the room's corners. At each he removed a small egg shaped device from his backpack and placed it on the ground using its integrated deployable tripod. A minute later he had finished and rejoined the group.

"What are those?" asked Jackson.

"Portable LIDAR imagers," replied Simmons as he tapped a few commands into a tactical slate attached to the inside of his right arm. "They'll create a virtual map of this room down to a resolution of one-tenth of a millimeter. Then we can take it back with us."

A final command activated the array. Operating in the infrared spectrum the lasers were invisible to the human eye. However the holographic readout projected from the slate showed the results as the room was surveyed over and over again, each pass increasing the detail until it was photo-realistic.

"Now let's get this indexed," said Simmons as the survey finished. A second set of commands ordered the onboard software to begin a translation of the hieroglyphs attached to each set of gate coordinates. With processing power of twenty petaflops, the small computer rapidly completed its task, reducing the data spread across the walls to a simple list of address, each with a small block of descriptive text accompanying it.

"Incredible," murmured Jackson as he watched the process in awe. "I've been working on translating this chamber for the last forty-seven years and you've just done it in seconds."

"I doubt it's perfect," replied Simmons with a shrug. "Ancient Egyptian isn't exactly a language that's in use at the moment so the translation matrix probably got some of its wrong. It isn't like translating English into German after all."

"I guess," replied the archeologist. He remembered computers as plastic boxes that sat on desks and blocky laptops that were too heavy to realistically rest comfortably on one's lap. He supposed he was feeling like what a scientist from the Second World War would've if he was thrown fifty years forward. "Anyway I've got more to show you guys if you're up for it."

"After you doctor," replied Myra with a grin. Maybe this new assignment was going to be worth it after all.

* * *

The White House

Washington DC, North American Union

September 8, 2042

When the North American Union had been formed in 2034, many had assumed that a new capitol would be built for a new nation. However the infrastructure that DC already possessed made retaining the seat of government in its current location more attractive to the new nation. A lot had change of course but it still remained the same city with the White House at its center.

Within was one of the most storied spaces in Washington. The Situation Room, that darkened cellar from which presidents had overseen countless national security threats was now playing host to yet another. Like most of the mansion the room itself had changed over the years, projection screens replaced with television monitors, then plasma displays and finally holographic projectors. With each successive iteration they covered more and more of the walls with information until there was none left.

The meeting participants, a somewhat modified National Security Council stood as President Rosalyn Caldwell entered the room, her tired visage unusually serious, even for her. Taking her seat at the head of the table she began without preamble.

"Thank you all for coming. We have a lot to get through so let get to it. General Hailey you have the floor," she said, gesturing to the holographic image that sat in one of the chairs.

Inwardly Hailey was glad that they'd gotten the teleconferencing suite set up in time for this meeting, sparing her the necessity of flying to Washington. "Thank you madam president. All of you have been briefed in on the Stargate. Approximately two days ago the gate was activated from off world and we received a radio signal that purported to originate from Doctor Daniel Jackson on the planet of Abydos. He claimed that he and the native population had indeed survived, in contrast to Colonel O'Neill's original report. He also claimed that he had uncovered a cartouche of Stargate addresses that served as Ra's map to gates across this sector of the galaxy."

"With the permission of the president I ordered a team through the gate to confirm this story. That was twenty-eight hours ago. Approximately two hours ago the gate activated again and we made contact with that team. They confirmed everything Doctor Jackson said and squirted us an indexed copy of the Cartouche through along with their initial reports on the situation. It appears that the people of Abydos have had somewhat of a renaissance over the last forty-seven years with Doctor Jackson serving as an advisor."

"Thank you general," said the president, reassuming control of the meeting. "So we now have a list of stargate addresses. First of all can we use them?"

"I don't see why not," replied Hailey. "We've already fed them into our computers here and should have an updated map within a week. We're having to correct for stellar drift but the calculations, while complex, are entirely within our capabilities. Assuming the gate network is intact and operational we can begin sending reconnaissance elements through within weeks."

"And that brings up an important point," said the Secretary of Defense, Douglas Demelo. "Should we? Don't get me wrong, I realize the Stargate represents a massive opportunity for advancement but it could also be a Pandora's Box that we may never be able to close."

"I agree," added the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Jerrome Cappello. "According you your team's report, Doctor Jackson claims that he was in error when he assumed that 'Ra' was the last of his race. If he's correct we could be facing an alien race with god only knows what kind of technological advantage over us."

"All good points," agreed the president, "and I agree that there are plenty of reason not to do this. But if 'because it could be dangerous' was a reason not to do anything, we'd still be living in caves. Besides, hiding our heads in the sand is never a good policy to adopt. General Hailey, what resources do you have available and what would you need to get a full exploration program operational?"

Those words caused the breath to hitch in the back of the Jennifer's throat. She'd spent the vast majority of her career working for this moment and now that it was here she was almost afraid it was a dream and she was about to wake up. Taking a deep breath she replied to what was perhaps the most important question she would ever be asked. "At the moment I have approximately six hundred personnel under my command; mostly technicians and the support staff needed to keep part of the mountain functioning. I also have a company of marines, mostly serving as security and a single four person team from SOCOM as my only recon element."

"Bottom line, I will need a significant increase in personnel and funding if I'm to get a sustained exploration mission underway. We'll need to retrofit the mountain with proper scientific facilities, completely overhaul the systems here and preferably get a fusion reactor setup so we're self-sufficient from and energy perspective. I'll need more reconnaissance teams, preferably SOCOM, and at least three more companies of marines for security purposes."

The president took all this in before nodding, "So ordered. Admiral I want you to give priority to General Hailey's requests. For the time being we'll fund it out of the black-ops budget so we can keep this under wraps."

"That brings up another point," commented the Secretary of State, Elizabeth Weir. Having long served her country as a respected diplomat and ambassador to several nations, she was winding down her career and looking forward to retirement. That's not to say she wasn't still a force to be reckoned with as everyone in the room knew. "Do we have the right to keep this a secret from the rest of the world?"

The president was quite for a moment while she considered that. "No we don't," she said with conviction. "We could never hope to keep something so important secret regardless of how hard we tried. Elizabeth I want you to come up with a plan to reveal the gate to the governments of Europe, South America, Southeast Asia, Oceania, Japan, Korea, Israel, South Africa, the Russian Republic, the Kingdom of Saint Petersburg, the Chechen Federation, Switzerland and Luxemburg. We have to let them know what we know."

"What about China?" asked Weir with a frown.

"Not with their internal problems," replied the president. "They still haven't recovered from the 2015 recession and they've been bordering on civil war for almost a decade now. Their government ministries are riddled with informants from all sides and some of them will see an advantage in letting this information leek. And then the whole world will know."

"Is that a bad thing?" persisted Weir. She was widely known as a proponent of government transparency.

"Elizabeth, have you ever heard of a man named Orson Welles?" asked Demelo offhandedly.

"Wasn't he a Hollywood actor back in the 20th?"

"Yeah but before that he was on the radio. This was back before the Second World War of course when television was still a novelty and most people got their entertainment from radio broadcasts. At the time Welles was a star of a show called The Mercury Theatre on the Air and in October of 1938 they decided to do an interpretation of H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds. They did it in the form of a series of fake news bulletins. Add to that the lack of commercial breaks and some people actually thought Mars was invading the Earth. People panicked across the Northeastern United States and Lower Canada and fled their homes. There were even reports of suicides."

"I'd like to think people are more intelligent and better informed today," countered Weir.

"It doesn't matter," replied the Secretary. "A single person, if you sit him or her down and explain something to them will listen, think and then adapt to a new situation. But people are dumb panicky animals; something that is proven every time a riot breaks out somewhere. Let's assume we do reveal the Stargate to the world. Then what happens if we have to tell them that we've run into a hostile group of these 'Goa'uld'? We'll have a repeat of the flying saucer panics of the 1950s, regardless of whether or not an alien fleet is on its way to Earth to blow us to kingdom come."

"And don't forget the apparent parasitical nature of the Goa'uld," added the Chairman. "If they can infiltrate and take over a person's body, we'll have people thinking their next door neighbor is an alien because he forgot to return a weed-whacker. The bottom line is that we cannot reveal the existence of the gate to the world until we have a realistic means of protecting Earth against an attack from space."

"I agree," said Caldwell, making it official. "I know you want to tell the world about this Elizabeth. I know that you're hoping that First Contact will make the world come together and look beyond our own petty affairs. And I hope you're right. But for the moment we cannot. Part of our duty as leaders is that we sometimes have to keep secrets for the good of our people, either to protect them from threats they cannot understand or to protect them from themselves."

"Understood," replied the diplomat. "I don't like it but I understand the reasons. That said I insist that this new Stargate Command have a detachment from the State Department to handle any diplomatic contacts with other worlds. We cannot have the military being the only face of our planet."

"Agreed," replied Caldwell, herself a well-known supporter of diplomacy. "But the facility will remain under the overall command of General Hailey. Let's get this done people. We have a galaxy to explore."

* * *

_Codex: The Second Red Revolution_

_The conflict commonly referred to as the Second Red Revolution, a period of civil and general war stretching over a two and a half year span is seen to have had roots dating decades earlier to the collapse of the Soviet Union. Most historians generally agree however that this period of instability truly began on May 7, 2012 with the reelection of Vladimir Putin to the presidency of the Russian Federation. The following years saw increasing crackdowns and imprisonment of progressives, liberals, democrats, homosexuals and ideological and ethnic minorities opposed to Putin's administration. During the same period restrictions on communists, ultranationalists and the Mafiya were lessened, leading to drastic increases in their power and authority._

_This all came to a head on February 6, 2021 with the official unification of the largest ultranationalist and communist parties into a single political entity. Having united in their goals and with the backing of the criminal underworld and the Kremlin, this new ruling party declared the rise of a Second Soviet Union and began a widespread purge of all opposition. Those opposing the new government formed a loose coalition for mutual protection and were commonly referred to as 'Guards' as an allusion to the White Guards that fought the Bolsheviks during the October Uprising of 1917. Fearing persecution under the new government, the Guards began fighting back with material and intelligence aid provided by both the United States and the European Union from without and the Chechens from within._

_For the next eight months both sides fought a bloody conventional war that left almost a million civilian and military casualties and caused wide scale devastation to Russia's infrastructure. This changed on October 14, 2021 when ultranationalist forces launched a strategic nuclear strike on the Guard capitol of Grozny. An estimated four hundred thousand perished directly in the strike with another one hundred thousand dying of radiation related ailments in the following weeks._

_The use of nuclear arms, long seen as a red line in the international community, was the final straw for the United States. Over the next month almost eighty thousand American soldiers were deployed to Russia, augmented by contingents from Great Britain, France, Germany, Japan and Canada. These forces provided the embattled Guards the necessary advantage to begin forcing the ultranationalists out of Western Russia and across the Urals._

_The war is officially said to have ended on November 16, 2023 as the last of the ultranationalist forces retreated into Siberia._

* * *

_Codex: The Aftermath of the Second Red Revolution_

_Although the war officially ended in November of 2023, the fallout continues until this day. Almost six million died during the two and a half year conflict and Russia was left in a state of devastation both economically and politically. While the revolution had failed to bring about a rise of a new Soviet state, it had succeeded in its goal of destroying the Russian Federation. Over the next four years fifteen new nations would rise from the ashes. These so-called 'successor states' ran the gambit from liberal democracies to autocratic dictatorships, ethnic enclaves and neo-communist unions, many of whom still control the remnants of the former Soviet nuclear arsenal._

_Of the fifteen states, the most powerful is the Russian Republic centered on Moscow. While this region bore the brunt of the much of the war, its built up infrastructure and defenses left it more-or-less intact and spared most of its population. After the destruction of Grozny and the subsequent operations that drove the ultranationalists east, Moscow became the new capitol of the Guard. In the years following the war the region increasingly embraced progressive policies becoming a modern, high-tech economic destination and a close ally to the European Union._

_Another notable successor state is the Kingdom of Saint Petersburg; a federal democracy under the titular control of a constitutional monarchy. The throne of Saint Petersburg however remains open in memory of the Romanov family with its parliament appointing a ceremonial chancellor to act in their name every ten years._

_In the south the Chechen Federation is centered on the former Chechen Republic and stretches from its northern border fifty kilometers south of Volgograd all the way to the Georgian and Azerbaijani borders. While the region has historically had a cool relationship with Russia, the Chechen Federation enjoys relatively close diplomatic ties to both the Russian Republic and the Kingdom of Saint Petersburg as well as the European Union._

_The remaining successor states further east are primarily ruled by either autocratic dictators or neo-communist parties with the notable exception of the former Far East Federal District which was reformed into the Eastern Russian Protectorate minus the Sakha Republic. This semi-autonomous nation was created with backing of the United States and Japan and serves as a buffer between their interests and the rogue successor states to the west. Its capitol is located in Vladivostok._


	3. Chapter Three - Encounters

**History Deferred**

Chapter Three – Encounters

_I spent more than a century looking for a way to free my people, to undermind the parasites arrogant enough to claim to be gods and have anyone who disagreed with them shot. There had been successes over the years of course but they were mere pinpricks against an empire that had stood for millennia. After that first day in the mountain I knew that my dream may have actually had a chance of coming true._

_- Teal'c, 2059_

P4X-144

October 15, 2042

When the first team had stepped through the gate and found humans back in '95, it had been considered an anomaly, a fluke that they had survived on an alien world for all that time, cut off and forgotten by Earth. The staggering differences in environment, radiation levels, flora and fauna and even the length of the days should've been factors that would've worked against them. But after six missions Colonel Silva had come to expect these displaced populations. Simmons had commented on the probability of so many habitable planets being so close to Earth as infinitesimal. Clearly someone had engineered them many eons ago. And just as clearly it hadn't been the Goa'uld.

Of the six planets they'd visited over the past two and a half weeks, four had been home to human cultures of all stripes. For alien worlds the locals weren't very alien. Oh sure there was the culture shock. All but one of them had descended from civilizations that hadn't considered women to be all that important and the last one had treated her and Adrienne like their every existence was somehow insulting. It was something both of them had long experience coping with. Spend time in the Middle East and you get used to all sorts of obsolete attitudes regarding gender roles. But even so Myra had been glad she'd been carrying a gun during that last one.

Their current mission had brought them to a jungle world; or at least the area in which the gate was located possessed a tropical climate. The locals had first greeted them as if they were some sort of deities, again not for the first time in what they all agreed was a disturbing trend. After that misconception had been dealt with they had welcomed the strange newcomers into their village and told them of themselves.

They called themselves the Kitimat and were evidently descended from the Mayans some four millennia past. Like the other worlds that her team had visited, they told tales about the gods that had taken them from their home and enslaved them, though like the others those gods hadn't visited in quite some time, almost fifty local years in fact. That made the team wince. The local year had been established as being slightly shorter than Earth norm and so it roughly corresponded to the death of Ra. Myra had the feeling they had only begun to see the fallout of that incident. Still in all it had been a relatively positive mission in a series of relatively positive missions.

And as if some sadistic deity had been listening to her thoughts, that peace was shattered. Myra had been speaking to the village elder when a shrill scream caught her attention. Turning to the source of the disturbance she saw a boy come running towards them, a look of terror spread across his face.

"What is it Meldra?" asked the elder.

"Jaffa have just come through the chappa'ai."

The elder seemed to pale upon hearing those words prompting Myra to ask the obvious. "What are Jaffa?"

"They are the soldiers of the gods," replied the old man with a long sigh. "After so long they have returned to enslave us."

The seemingly automatic acceptance of their fate surprised Myra. "Can't you fight them?"

"Fight warriors of the gods?" asked the elder in surprise, almost as if she'd suddenly grown a second head. "With what? We have little more than bows and arrows while their weapons shoot bolts of yellow light that can throw someone across this square. Their armor is invincible and the Jaffa are many times as strong as any man. We cannot hope to beat them. So we will submit and pray that we aren't punished too harshly for abandoning the gods."

Myra couldn't believe what she was hearing. That anyone would willingly submit to enslavement rather than fight was anathema to her way of thinking. The very concept of slavery left her with a bitter taste in the back of her throat, a legacy of her upbringing in the former United States. And she would be damned if she let it happen on her watch.

"What're we going to do boss?" asked Fareed as he read her body language.

"What do you think?" she replied simply as she pulled the charging handle on her rifle. "Let's go take a looksee shall we?"

The other members of her team nodded in agreement.

"You cannot be serious," said the elder in alarm. "No one can fight the gods."

"We haven't tried yet," replied Silva coldly, ending any debate into the matter as she turned about face and led her team out of the village.

* * *

It was yet another indignity that had brought Teal'c to this world, an order from his 'god' that he'd had no choice but to obey. Not for the first time had he had considered simply ending that monster's life, yet as always he'd stayed his hand. His position was too important to risk in such an impulsive action, pleasant though it may have been.

Apophis had ordered him to this world to scout for any trace of Ra's forces. Not that Teal'c expected to find them. Whatever had happened to Ra had seemingly erased him from the face of existence. The former Supreme System Lord had been gone for a half century and no matter what Apophis did to provoke a response, none ever came. That he risked the lives of countless Jaffa in these provocations was immaterial. Yet another reason to hate him.

While he hadn't said it out loud, Teal'c was beginning to see a pattern to Apophis' actions. Legends said that the first world, Tau'ri, was located beyond Ra's territories and that was the direction that they'd been expanding in over the past few decades. The very thought of it was enough to send a shudder down Teal'c spine. The first world was said to have a greater concentration of humans than any other planet in the galaxy. If Apophis located them, the atrocities he could commit with access to the labor of that many slaves were beyond imagining.

Teal'c had led a dozen Jaffa warriors to this world. They were among Apophis' best but they were also absolutely loyal to their 'god' and had been forced upon Teal'c without his consent. Idly he wondered if Apophis had become aware of his actions to sabotage him over the years before dismissing it. If that were the case he'd already be dead along with his family as an example to others.

Exiting the Stargate they'd immediately spread out in a standard scouting formation so as to better cover the surrounding area. That's when he'd first head rustling in the nearby jungle.

"It sounds as if we've already been noticed," commented Ral'nok, his second for this expedition.

"Indeed," replied the stoic Jaffa. He prayed that whoever had noticed them was running to his people in order to warn them to flee. Hopefully that would save a few lives. "We will follow the scout back to his home and announce the arrival of their new god."

"Hail Apophis," replied the younger Jaffa in agreement. He failed to notice the brief flash of distaste that crossed his superior's face.

As the group moved out they were unaware of the small machine hovering a few feet above their heads and recording everything they said.

* * *

"Man are these guys for real?" asked Simmons through his sub vocal comlink as they observed the new arrival's progress towards the village. "I mean is that chain mail? Did we accidently dial a Renaissance Festival by mistake?"

"Maybe," agreed Myra with an incredulous smirk. They'd been observing these 'Jaffa' for almost ten minutes via a small tri-rotor UAV they'd left to monitor the gate. The drones had become a staple of Stargate Command for scouting planets prior to sending a team. It was one of the best pieces of kit they'd received in their new posting and Myra loved the little machines for their stealth and utility. This particular model was known as the 'Wasp' because of the unique noise its ducted rotors made. Equipped with ultra-definition visual, night and thermal cameras, sonar imaging, directional and laser microphones and a LIDAR mapping array, there was little that could hide from its electronic eyes and ears. It was also resilient, able to linger for weeks thanks to its top mounted solar cell and super-capacitor.

"And take a look at those staffs of theirs," commented Adrienne, serving in her role as weapons specialist. "If those are the guns the villagers warned us of I don't think we have much to worry about. You'd be lucky to hit the broad side of a barn at fifty meters," she commented, disdain carrying clear across the channel as the trained sniper in her scoffed at the image.

"I'm not detecting any signs of comm gear either," added Simmons in disbelief. "No electromagnetic emissions of any kind aside from those staffs and the whatever-they-ares holstered on their forearms. Looks to me like they're some sort of pistols."

"Agreed," added Fareed as he blew up and digitally enhanced the feed. "What's the third one carrying?"

"Looks like a ram's horn…," began Simmons before laughter filled the channel. "Oh god, is that how they communicate? It's like something out of a fantasy novel. And those helmets. Snakes? How the hell can they stand those things? They don't even articulate at the neck."

"Looks to me like their armor is built for intimidation," commented Myra after a few more seconds. "It may look pretty ridiculous to us but I bet to those villagers these guys would look pretty damned scary."

"Savages," commented Adrienne, receiving a sharp look from her commander which she immediately responded to. "Not the villagers. These guys. What kind of soldier spends his time intimidating people living in huts? Reminds me of the Taliban back thirty years ago."

"Yeah," agreed Fareed. His father had been a translator and a native Afghani that'd left the country during the US pullout. He'd learned pretty early on just how lucky he was not to have grown up there, something he himself had confirmed during the many missions into the region over his career. "What's the plan boss?"

"We passed a clearing about a half kick back. We'll setup a nice little ambush for our new friends here. Adrienne, Simmons, I want you two to setup in overwatch while Fareed and I will stand in the clear. Maybe we can convince them to turn around and go back to wherever they came from. Get them to leave the villagers alone."

"Fat chance if you ask me," opined the sniper. "You can almost feel the arrogance rolling off these guys like cheap cologne."

"Yeah boss, you'll be pretty exposed like that if things go south," added Simmons.

Myra smiled at that. Any other commander might've thought they were being insubordinate. But they'd been together for so long that she knew it was only concern for her wellbeing. "Don't worry guys. I'll be careful and we'll rig the clearing with claymores in case things go south. But if they do make sure you take this one alive," she added, tagging what appeared to be the leader. "We need intelligence. And while their equipment might be pretty laughable, it might still be worth having the eggheads look over. Besides I don't have a choice in this. Mission protocol makes it clear. 'All reasonable efforts must be made to establish peaceful contact before hostilities can take place'."

"I still don't like it," replied Adrienne petulantly. "Damned REMFs have forgotten what it's like to be on the sharp end sitting in their comfy office chairs back in the Pentagon."

"Maybe so," agreed the colonel, "but those are our orders and they will be obeyed. Is that clear?"

"Yes ma'am," replied the others at once.

"Good. Let's get going."

* * *

Teal'c could feel the hairs on the back of his neck standing on end. It was a sixth sense he'd developed over his life that told him they were being watched. Yet for the life of him he couldn't tell who was doing the watching or where they were. The other Jaffa around him clearly thought the same. Their movements had become more cautious and their advance had slowed so as to be better able to hear the sounds around them. But all they got in answer as the chirping of birds and the buzz of insects.

A lot of insects, thought Teal'c offhandedly. Well they were in a jungle after all. But the buzzing seemed to follow them wherever they went, just a faint noise, barely perceptible to even his superior hearing. Shrugging it off he continued his march. His scouts had reported a clearing up ahead. Perhaps they would stop for a moment. The heat was oppressive, magnified by their armor and they could all use a break.

Entering the clearing he was surprised to find it already occupied. Two humans stood on the other side seemingly waiting for them, totally at ease. The armor they wore was strange, lacking the embellishments that covered Jaffa armor and seemingly made for utility above all else. There were pockets and gear attached at various points where they could be easily accessed under any circumstances. Each held what could only be some sort of weapon; their boxy design covered in a matte black coating with various attachments. He could also see some sort of sidearm strapped with their right thighs.

He took a moment to study the humans themselves as well. Far from the dirty, uneducated peasants he normally encountered during his duties, these showed no fear. Rather they were themselves examining his men, seemingly judging their potential threat. It was unnerving to say the least and idly he wondered if these had come from one of the more advanced human worlds. While they were few in number and tended to keep to themselves, the peoples of worlds like Tollana, Hebridan and Orban had repeatedly proven their ability to defend themselves.

The leader was a woman judging by her position slightly ahead of the other. Raven hair, hard eyes and a wicked scar that ran diagonally across her face showed that she was no stranger to combat. What really drew his attention was her arms however, which were seemingly made entirely of corded black metal, almost like exposed muscle. She took a single step forward, her weapon at rest but clearly ready to fire.

"Halt and identify yourselves," she spoke clearly, her tone one that was used to being obeyed.

"I am Teal'c, First Prime of the great god Apophis. He has claimed this world for his domain and all those that reside here are now subject to his divine rule." Teal'c had a hard time not cracking a smile at that, his boundless stoicism barely keeping his amusement at bay. Apophis was many things but divine was not one of them. "Who are you to trespass upon his world?"

Judging by her body language, the female was not impressed by his declaration. Neither was the male behind her who scoffed at his words. "My name is Colonel Myra Silva of the North American Union. This world belongs to the locals and not to your so-called 'god'. Given that they were here first and have no interest in worshipping this 'Apophis' of yours, I suggest you turn around and go home."

"How dare you?" demanded one of the Jaffa behind Teal'c. The first prime turned around, disengaging his helmet in the process and leveled a withering stare at the offender for his outburst. His instincts were screaming a warning and he was almost sure they'd walked into an ambush.

"Whomever you are, you cannot hope to match the power of the gods," replied Teal'c. "They are all knowing and all seeing and they take what they want. This world is subject to my lord's domain and so are you. Lay down your arms and surrender and you will be granted mercy."

"I don't think so," replied Silva. "You have no authority over me or anyone on this planet. This is your last warning. Turn around and leave. Now."

"I cannot and will not do that," replied Teal'c, the two locked in a staring contest, one that carried on for several seconds. That ended with the characteristic crackling of a charging staff weapon to his right. A bolt of yellow sprang from its end and slammed into the woman, throwing her several meters back; her companion diving behind a fallen tree for cover.

Teal'c turned to the offender only to witness his head explode. The shock of his death stunned the First Prime for a moment, his mind struggling to understand what had just happened. He was therefore caught off guard as five of his troop were reduced to a fine mist as several concealed devices detonated behind him. What remained of his cadre was thrown to the ground by the concussion, recovering quickly and searching for targets. The male had however concealed himself well and whatever enemies were attacking them were hidden among the surrounding trees.

* * *

The impact had thrown Silva almost five meters, right to the edge of the clearing. She lay there a moment before regaining her senses, a deep throbbing pain in her chest reporting to her just how bad the impact had been. Rolling over to get into cover behind the same log as Fareed, she began taking stock of her injuries. Her HUD was reporting numerous fractures throughout her ribcage, internal bleeding and bruising to her liver and one of her lungs.

Already her implants were working overtime releasing various drugs into her system to counteract the pain and promote healing while millions of micro-machines swarmed through her bloodstream to the damaged areas to affect repairs. Never in her life had she been so glad to have gotten those ceramic bone implants otherwise she was sure her ribcage would've been shattered.

"You ok boss?" asked Fareed from his position next to her.

"Better than my armor," she replied, looking down at her cratered chest plate. The plasma bolt hadn't actually made it all the way through but had penetrated the surface layer of carbon fiber and into the underlying ceramics. Most of the damage to her chest had been caused by concussion not the plasma itself, a small mercy. She'd seen what directed energy weapons could do to a person and it wasn't pretty. "I guess they're not so primitive after all," she added, grabbing her rifle which had somehow survived intact.

"Amen," replied her second as he popped up and fired off a burst, killing another Jaffa.

"Remember everyone I want their leader alive," she announced over the comm.

"I've got it," replied Simmons from his position to the hostile's left, concealed by his adaptive camo. He took aim and triggered his weapon's under barrel launcher. Little more than an attached shotgun, the weapon fired a 40mm shock round that slammed straight into the neck of the enemy leader, his body stiffening and falling to the ground as the high voltage, low amperage charge surged through his system and knocked him unconscious.

The sound of Simmon's weapon firing drew the Jaffa's attention and gave Myra and Fareed a moment to think. Myra, by this time having recovered from the enemy fire, flipped a switch on the side of her rifle, activating its integrated targeting module. The FM-27 battle rifle, commonly known as the 'Sanction' was a new generation of assault weapon, designed in an era where conventional ballistics were becoming increasingly obsolete. A hybrid of a gas operated assault rifle and a coilgun, it fired fin-stabilized flechettes contained within a discarding sabot and used caseless propellant, eliminating the need for an ejector port. Moreover its integrated targeting module allowed for the use of smart ammunition, making missed shots nearly a thing of the past. With integrated sound and flash suppression, asymmetrical recoil compensation and gyroscopic balancing, they'd become a favorite in the Special Forces community.

Popping up from her cover she could already see two of the enemy soldiers turning towards her, struggling to bring their awkward weapons to bear. Each had been tagged by her team's helmet and gun mounted optics as well as the sensors on the drone hovering twenty meters overhead. This data was fed into her weapon which designated the nearest target to her bore-sight and passed the data to the onboard nanoprocessors in each round. Her HUD displayed the most likely path of travel that her rounds would follow, a chirping noise sounding in her ear letting her know that her weapon had a definite lock on target. Satisfied that she could hit her intended target she pulled the trigger, an entirely electronic mechanism in the FM-27, which told the rifle's computer to fire.

The weapon released a three round burst, conventional propellant aided by magnetic fields launching the projectiles at almost three times the speed of sound. All but a small puffing noise was eaten up by the suppressors, the recoil lost in the complex inner mechanisms. As they exited the barrel, each projectile discarded its spindle sabot, releasing the razor tipped flechettes within. Exposed to the air, their tiny onboard cameras acquired their target and with minute adjustments to their control veins, corrected any deviations in their course; milliseconds later piecing their target's armor and pulping his internal organs. He was dead before he hit the ground.

His partner was taken down a moment later by another round from Adrienne's sniper rifle. The remaining two tried to bring their weapons to bear on Myra only to fall to two quick bursts from Simmons and Fareed, their chest armor sparking as the flechettes pierced through. And just like that it was over.

"Clear!" shouted Myra as she stood up, her rifle leveled and ready to fire should any of the hostiles so much as twitch.

"Anyone else hit?" shouted Fareed as he too stood up and followed the colonel.

"I'm fine," replied Simmons as he emerged from the jungle, his camo shimmering as it disengaged.

"Ditto," replied Adrienne.

"Well that could've gone better," commented Myra as she stood over the enemy leader, Teal'c. The shock round was still stuck to the side of his neck. "Someone secure this guy. Let's collect of their weapons to take back with us."

"You sure you're OK boss?" asked Simmons, all but gawking at her cratered armor.

"It hurts like a son-of-a-bitch but I'm fine," she replied. "Damned things hit like an explosive 50-cal."

"Impressive technology," nodded their tech specialist, already bending down to examine one of the staffs. "Not a particularly impressive form factor but damned impressive technology. Plasma by the looks of it. Too slow to be anything else."

"Nice," commented Adrienne as she picked up another of the alien weapons. "We've been trying to develop a plasma weapon for years but we could never get the containment to work right. Without that the prototypes were nothing but expensive flamethrowers," she continued, examining the triggering mechanism. Shrugging she took aim at a nearby tree and fired, a bolt slamming into it and blowing a hole right through. "Not much recoil but damned hard to aim."

"Wonder what this is," said Fareed as he removed the pistol like device from the leader's gauntlet holster. Finding a squeeze bar on its lowest segment he managed to open it. Aiming it at the same tree as before he triggered it, a lightning-like beam of energy surging forward and skittering over his target before dissipating.

"Looks like some sort of laser induced plasma channel like an electrolaser," commented Simmons, examining the weapon. "Less powerful than those plasma staffs but in a smaller form factor. Pretty decent sidearm all things considered."

"We'll gather them all up, the staffs too. Also we'll take the least damaged set of armor back with us. It might not look like much but a metallurgical analysis might prove interesting," ordered Silva as she bent down and removed another of the sidearms, placing it in a netted bag from her backpack.

"And the bodies?" asked Fareed.

"Search them for anything interesting then drag them into the jungle. Mother nature will do the rest."

"Understood."

* * *

Teal'c awoke to a throbbing pain in his neck. Reaching up to feel the damage proved impossible as he found his wrists bound behind his back. Taking stock of his situation he found himself propped up against a tree at the edge of the clearing, stripped of his weapons and wearing only his underclothing.

"He's awake boss," said a voice to his right, the male from before standing watch over him. The female leader stood with two others, her chest armor damaged; it had obviously done its job considering she was still alive. At their feet was a bag containing numerous zat'nik'tels as well as a set of Serpent Guard armor that he instantly recognized as his own. Next to it was a bundle of ma'tok staffs bound together with some sort of twine. Of his retinue there was no sign, their bodies having been disposed of by the humans while he was unconscious.

The leader walked over to him, the frown covering her features momentarily reminding him of Drey'auc's when he'd done something particularly stupid. She stopped in front of him, looking down as if studying a specimen before speaking. "I don't like being shot."

"That was never my intention," replied the Jaffa in resignation. "I knew that we had walked into an ambush. He acted of his own volition."

Their leader, this Silva woman seemed to accept that answer with a nod. "It was an easy mistake to make. You couldn't have known we were here."

"I felt you watching for some time," replied Teal'c, a note of pride breaking into his voice.

"Impressive. But it wasn't us," she replied as she reached up. Teal'c followed her strange metal arm and watched as what he first took to be a bird landed in her hand. Only after a moment did he note that it was some kind of machine with three articulated whirling blades attached to its sides. "Pretty handy things these."

"Indeed. So what is to become of me?"

"That's a good question," replied the colonel. "You're obviously someone important and I'm sure you know all sorts of things we'd like to hear."

"And so you'll take me back to your world and torture me for that information." He'd said it with such fatalism that even Silva was surprised. Apparently that kind of attitude was more common out here then it was on Earth.

"We don't torture. But there are plenty of ways to make a prisoner miserable short of torture."

Teal'c nodded at that. He knew quite a few ways himself, most of which had been gleefully taught to him by Apophis and his subordinates over the years. "That will not be necessary. I will freely offer all I know of the Goa'uld to you."

"Just like that?"

"For many years I have searched for a way to free my brothers from the Goa'uld. I've worked against them in secret to undermine their power and sabotage their efforts. In that time I've seen dozens of worlds fall to their power and watched millions slaughtered. None of them could have prevented their fate. I think you are the first that could."

"You don't know us," she replied, seemingly considering whether was being truthful. "We could be spies for your master for all you know."

"If you are then I am dead," he replied simply. "And if you are not and if I were to somehow escape and return to Apophis I would still be punished for my failure. The Goa'uld do not look kindly upon failure, even for one such as I."

"And who are you?" she asked.

"I am Teal'c of Chulak, Son of Ro'nak and First Prime of Apophis."

"What exactly is a First Prime?"

"The foremost warrior of a Goa'uld System Lord is given the rank of First Prime. They are the leader of their entire army and most trusted servant."

"I think he means that he's like the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs," commented the new male, his eyes shifting strangely as if he was seeing more than what was before him.

"Damn," spoke the last of the humans, a female with a very large weapon. "Not bad for our first encounter. We bagged the leader of the whole damned Goa'uld army."

"That is not true," corrected Teal'c. "I only command the forces of Apophis, not that of all the Goa'uld. There is no such person as the Goa'uld are not united."

"Is that a fact?" commented the colonel with an evil little glimmer in her eyes. They could use that. "Well that can wait. I need to know what will happen to the local population when you don't report in."

"Apophis will assume that there was some unforeseen danger waiting on this planet and consider it off limits for a time. It is a Goa'uld custom to send scouting parties ahead to make sure a new world is safe before occupation."

"And what made this planet so special?" asked Silva. "Our understanding is that there are thousands of worlds in the Stargate network. Why this one?"

"This world once belonged to Ra. When he disappeared a period of chaos ensued. After that settled Apophis began expanding into Ra's territory, believing that if he kept going he would eventually discover Tau'ri and conquer its native population."

"Tau'ri?"

"There is a legend of a primitive world first discovered millennia ago. It was said that this world was where beings of this form first evolved. This world is known as Tau'ri, the first world. The Goa'uld spent centuries harvesting from among the primitives. Some became Goa'uld hosts. Some became the first Jaffa. And some were taken as slaves and seeded amongst the stars. But its location has been lost for centuries."

The four humans exchanged a look at that before the leader spoke. "We call that world Earth and it is our home."

Teal'c couldn't begin to suppress the shock that was laid bare on his face. Tau'ri was a legendary place, one of the few worlds throughout history that had successfully thrown off the Goa'uld by force. His mentor Bra'tac, may the true gods rest his soul, had spoken often of them as inspiration and proof that the Goa'uld were not gods. 'How could gods be driven away by simple humans?' he would often ask.

Finding his voice again Teal'c replied, "If what you say is true then your people represent the greatest hope for countless worlds across the galaxy."

"No pressure," murmured the male with the shifting eyes.

"Well regardless we need to get going. Let's head for the Stargate. Simmons, grab that bag with those snake weapons…"

"Zat'nik'tel," provided Teal'c.

"You know how they work?" asked the aforementioned Simmons.

"The Goa'uld do not reveal the workings of their magic to their subjects. I know only how to use them. One shot will inflict great pain, disabling and often causing unconsciousness. Two will kill most subjects."

"And a third?" asked the human as he removed one of the weapons from the bag.

"A third shot will disintegrate a target," he said, greeted by looks of surprise.

"Jesus, it's like an honest to god phaser," said the first male. "That alone makes this mission worthwhile. Imagine the uses."

"And now I feel pretty stupid," commented the second female with a groan. "We humped all those damned bodies into the jungle when we could've just vaporized them? Fuck!"

"Well between these zat'nik'tel weapons and those staffs this has been a pretty decent mission," announced Silva. "But best we don't overstay our welcome. Move out."

The trip to the Stargate was a short one, the humans bantering with each other and occasionally asking questions of him. They hadn't released his bonds, a fact that increased his respect for them considerably. Clearly these people were not fools. Approaching the gate the colonel called a halt, taking the flying machine from a compartment on her belt and deploying it. After a few minutes it returned. At his questioning look she explained.

"No offense Teal'c but we still don't trust you. You could've been leading us into a trap."

"I understand."

"Simmons, dial the gate and take us home," she ordered as she approached him, removing a handkerchief from a pocket. "I'm sorry to do this but we cannot afford to have the address to our world revealed, especially since you've already told us that its location has been lost for centuries," she continued, trying it over his eyes. "I'll remove this after we go through."

Teal'c nodded in acceptance. While their security measures may've been somewhat paranoid they were also sensible. After the blindfold had been secured the gate was dialed and activated. Silva walked him through, the brief chill of travel dissipating to be replaced by air cooler than that of the jungle. Silva kept her word a moment later and removed the blindfold.

The room they were standing in was made of some sort of smoothed stone, lights shining brightly overhead. They were standing on a grated metal ramp that led up to the gate behind him, several soldiers holding their weapons on him while a diminutive female wearing a navy blue jacket with two silver stars on each shoulder stood behind them. By her positioning he assumed her to be in charge of this facility.

She spoke a moment later. "Colonel Silva, you didn't tell me you were bringing home a house guest."

"I like to keep things interesting," she replied with a smirk.

"I can see that," replied the jacketed female, gesturing to Silva's breastplate. "I take it things didn't go well."

"You can say that general. We ran into a group of Goa'uld soldiers called Jaffa. This is their leader, Teal'c."

"You did good taking a prisoner," she said before addressing him directly. "My name is General Jennifer Hailey."

"I am Teal'c of Chulak. As I have told you warrior I will provide all my knowledge of the Goa'uld freely without coercion."

That surprised the general who turned to Silva, "Not a prisoner then?"

"More like a defector. But we'll see," agreed the colonel.

"Right. Corporal," said the general to one of the soldiers standing next to her, "take Mister Teal'c to the infirmary for a full decontamination and then escort him to a holding cell. Teal'c, if you have truly decided to work with us then I expect you to fully cooperate."

"I understand."

"Good. SG-1, debriefing in one hour."

* * *

_Codex: The North American Union_

_Formed in 2034, the North American Union is an amalgamation of the various nations of North America, stretching from the Canadian Territories in the north to the Isthmus of Panama in the south and from Alaska in the west to Greenland in the east. A federal republic with its capitol in Washington DC, the Union utilizes a streamlined version of the United States government modified to employ electronic voting, a multi-party political system and an elected Supreme Court._

_The Union can trace its beginnings to the North American Defense Pact signed in the aftermath of the nuclear Second Red Revolution and the increasing power of the multi-nation political blocs. With the rise of super-states such as the European Union, the Southeast Asian Alliance and the Oceanic Federation, the nations of North America quickly came to the conclusion that the formation of their own political bloc was the only practical measure to ensure the continent's continued economic prosperity._

_Unlike the three afore mentioned super-states, the nations of the North American Union do not retain their independence, rather becoming states, or in the case of Canada, Mexico and the United States, having their own states or provinces become states within the Union. Likewise the various national militaries are integrated at all levels into the Union Armed Forces, drastically streamlining their organizational and logistical operations._


	4. Chapter Four - Raid

**History Deferred**

Chapter Four – Raid

_When we first realized the scope of the threat that lay before us, there were some who wanted to bury our heads in the sand. There were even those who said the Stargates should be destroyed, afraid of what might be out there. But there were also some who realized what we would gain far exceeded what we could face and that whatever dangers there were among the stars, we would overcome them as we always had._

_- General Jennifer Hailey, 2061_

Cheyenne Mountain Complex

Colorado Springs, Colorado, North American Union

October 18, 2042

It had been several days since he'd been brought to this place, a mountain fortress if what he'd been told was accurate. Despite his original doubts these people were proving worthy of the faith he'd placed in them. It had been a split second decision, one made in the heat of the moment. He'd placed his trust and his very life in the hands of strangers.

The question of why was something that haunted him however. Was it some instinct, a gut feeling that made him trust these strange humans? Was it anger at Apophis and his kind for their transgressions? Was it a simple leap of faith? His self-ruminations had told him that is was all of these and something more. What he'd finally realized is that it was fatigue, a bone-deep wariness that had been his catalyst. For almost seventy years he'd overseen atrocity after atrocity; millions of innocent lives sacrificed in the name of narcissism, cruelty and greed. And finally it was enough.

If he was honest with himself that point had come almost two decades earlier when he'd sought out the Tok'ra. He lived in a society that had provided no outlet for his repressed frustrations, forced to keep his thoughts to only a close circle of friends lest he be discovered and executed. The Tok'ra had provided him with that outlet and what had begun as a partnership forged in anger had become far more. It had become an alliance that had hurt the Goa'uld badly and in ways that were nearly impossible to recover from. But for all their actions it was still not enough. Not nearly.

And so here he was seeking new allies. The last few days had been filled with question after question as these people, the Tau'ri as he still called them, struggled to come to terms with the reality that they were now facing. In that regard they were like any other world that had reached towards the stars only to find them dark and foreboding. But unlike those unfortunates these had an advantage. Their world had been forgotten, lost to the ages and shrouded in myth. And as defenses go it was better than most.

His thoughts were interrupted by a knock at his door, Colonel Silva entering after a few seconds. She was another oddity of this world that they didn't think was odd at all. Female Jaffa warriors were rare, human female warriors even rarer. It was perhaps a failure of his own society that they saw women as little more than second class citizens, fit only to take care of a house and raise children. Idly he wondered how much more powerful the Jaffa would have been if they utilized their women to their full potential. Then again that power would undoubtedly be exploited by the Goa'uld.

"Teal'c. Are you ready for today's meetings?"

"Indeed. I am curious as to how many more questions there will be."

"I doubt your debriefing will last much longer," she replied with a shrug. "You have to understand that you're the only source of information we have on the Goa'uld that isn't several millennia out of date."

"Indeed," he replied with an accepting nod. While it may have been tiring it was absolutely necessary that these people be made aware of what they faced. The two of them exited his room, his usual marine escort absent today. He was clearly earning their trust. "I have however told you most of what I know thus far. I am not sure how much further use I can be in that regard."

"We figured as much," replied the Colonel as they entered the elevator. The two traveled in silence for another few minutes before entering the conference room.

"Ah Teal'c. Good to see you," greeted General Hailey. She was another person he was becoming used to. The diminutive leader had proven herself to be extremely intelligent over the past days. So had the woman sitting next to her, a retired warrior named Samantha Carter. That was also something that had confused him. How could someone retire from being a warrior and yet still live? These humans had strange ways.

"Greetings," he replied with a small bow before taking his accustomed seat.

For the first hour they continued the course of questioning from the day before. However as it became more obvious that he had little more to offer the questions began to change focus. After a short break Colonel Silva asked him something very different from the simple background information he'd provided to this point. "It has become increasingly obvious that you do not know very much about Goa'uld technology. That is perhaps understandable both due to the nature of the relationship between Goa'uld and Jaffa as well as your position as a military leader and not a scientist or scholar. Therefore we have come to the conclusion that in order to defend ourselves we need working examples of Goa'uld equipment."

"That is understandable," he replied, somewhat suspecting where this conversation was headed.

"As First Prime of Apophis you'd have intimate knowledge of his operations and facilities. What we're looking for is a world that is lightly defended and yet has a garrison of Goa'uld spacecraft that we could… acquire," continued the colonel, by which she of course meant steal.

"I can provide such a target, the world of Hesquiat. It lies deep within Apophis' territory and therefore has little need of protection. It is also resource poor and lacks a native population."

"Why would Apophis bother to garrison it then?" asked Carter in confusion. "Does it represent some sort of strategic position that could be used against him?"

"Its strategic value is minimal. Indeed its only true worth is its natural beauty. While many Goa'uld do not appreciate that quality in anything but their hosts, there are some who do. Hesquiat serves as the domain of the Planet Lord Amtes. She is somewhat of an oddity among the Goa'uld."

"How so?" asked Carter.

"She is what you could call a mercenary, offering her services to the system lord who can provide the greatest incentive. Currently that is Apophis."

"What kind of services?"

"Scientific knowledge and technological development. It is she who developed the zat'nik'tel almost fifteen hundred years ago. More recently she has been working to develop a compact hyperdrive that can be fitted to a Death Glider. I do not know how close she is to succeeding however. The Tok'ra have prioritized sabotaging such projects in the past."

"Interesting," said Hailey, seemingly lost in thought. They'd been told of the Tok'ra the day before and while an alliance with the renegades could prove useful, finding and contacting them was not an immediate priority. "You said she's a mercenary. Would it be possible to buy her services?"

"That I do not know," replied Teal'c honestly. "She has worked for many Goa'uld over the centuries, finally coming into the service of Ra where she remained until his disappearance. She was then content to serve Apophis in exchange for a world of her own and other small tributes. I do not know if she would voluntarily work for humans however it is possible if the incentives are great enough or if she is coerced to a sufficient degree. She is not greedy, one of many things that make her an oddity amongst the Goa'uld."

"What else makes her so strange?" asked Silva.

"When she entered service to Apophis she was offered many slaves as compensation. She chose only one, a human male, to serve as her Lo'taur. Lo'taur serve as personal attendants," he added, forestalling the obvious question. "I have heard rumors that they have become very close over the years though I have not witnessed it personally. That may be a weakness that an enemy could exploit. She prefers solitude to work on her projects, only calling for aid if necessary. She is somewhat hedonistic, although not to the degree of many other Goa'uld."

"Sounds like a total geek to me," commented Silva with a grin. They weren't exactly a rarity in the SGC. "What kind of defenses are we looking at?"

"Apophis had me setup the facilities on Hesquiat when she first agreed to serve him. There is a garrison of approximately one hundred and fifty Jaffa however that number can fluctuate depending upon availability. Apophis has been known to reduce their numbers when there is a greater need elsewhere. The stargate is easily defendable; located at the terminus of a long, narrow valley and there are numerous reinforced emplacements that can attack anything that comes through. I believe you call these fortifications 'pillboxes'," he added, having read several military books available within the base library.

"That'll be a bitch to break through," commented Silva.

"Might be a good test for the new Hydra array," added Carter.

"Agreed," said Hailey before gesturing Teal'c to continue.

"Above and beyond the fortifications the planet is protected by a contingent of twelve Tara'jeet-class death gliders and a single Al'kesh bomber. There are also two Tel'tak cargo shuttles for evacuation in case the stargate should become inaccessible. However the garrison is mostly considered superfluous. The chance of an attack that deep within Apophis' territory is minimal."

"Why?" asked Hailey, still trying to get a feel for Goa'uld strategy and how it factored in the Stargate.

"While it is true that an enemy could attack through the stargate, the local garrison would be able to defend the planet long enough for reinforcements to arrive via ship. Hesquiat is located little more than five light-years from one of Apophis' most populous planets. An Al'kesh could make such a journey within an hour if it pushed its engines and a Ha'tak would take only a half hour longer."

"So the garrison isn't there to stop an invasion, just to delay one long enough for reinforcements to arrive," concluded Silva with a sigh. That could be a problem. "How would they call for reinforcements if they're cut off from the gate?"

"The Jaffa garrison will have access to a long range communications device," replied Teal'c. "It allows two parties to communicate in real time from a great distance."

"FTL communications," noted Carter, a hungry smile appearing on her lips. To anyone who knew her, this was the look she got when there was some new and great discovery just over the horizon. "We've been trying to develop something like that for years. Can these devices communicate with multiple others or is the relationship one-to-one?"

"They can contact many others," replied Teal'c. "But I do not know how they function, just how to use them."

"That rules out quantum nonlocality," added Hailey. "Some form of subspace communications maybe?"

"Possibly," replied Carter with a shrug. "I'd definitely like to get my hands on one. Or better yet a pair of them. That way we could study their functionality from transmission to reception."

"I'll make sure we add them to our list of must haves," agreed Silva as she made a note on her slate. "Although I would imagine that an analogue could be found on their spacecraft as well. The problem I see at this point is how we keep them from calling for help. If they do we'll drown in Apophis' reinforcements before we can salvage anything."

"What about a non-nuclear EMP?" asked Carter as she entered several equations into her tablet. "We can mount it to a cruise missile. Detonate it at a high enough altitude and it'll blanket the entire area."

"Would that work against Goa'uld technology?" asked Silva.

"It should," replied Hailey. "We've been studying the weapons that you brought back. On the whole Goa'uld computing technology appears to be an eclectic mix of traditional planar micro and nano-circuitry with a smattering of optical processing and holographic storage crystals thrown haphazardly in. Actually it isn't that far ahead of what we already use hardware wise. And the less said about their software the better. An EMP will be capable of frying the electronic components in both the ma'tok staff and the zat'nik'tel if it's intense enough. I doubt these communicators are better shielded. How large are they Teal'c?"

"The ones the garrison will have access to are small enough to fit in one's hand," he replied, not entirely following the conversation.

"That would limit the amount of shielding you could incorporate," agreed Carter. "But I worry about losing the data that Amtes will have stored in her facility. A fighter-sized hyperdrive would be an especially important piece of technology to get our hands on, considering our current situation."

"Actually that shouldn't be a problem," replied the general. "When we tested an EMP on the Goa'uld weapons it didn't scramble the data stored on the crystals. It just fried the circuitry and interrupted the flow of energy from the power source. It also disrupted the magnetic containment field generators of the ma'tok staff for several minutes. Without those their plasma weapons are useless, even if they could fire."

"Then EMP grenades would be useful when we go up against the Jaffa," said Silva. "I'll make sure we take some along. What about the spacecraft? I don't want to destroy what we've come to steal."

"Shouldn't be a problem," reassured the general. "Any spacecraft would have to be shielded properly to function outside an atmosphere. And the EMP should hopefully disrupt their communications long enough for you to capture them."

"Then we have an operational concept," said Silva. "The only concern is the time between when the EMP missile exits the event horizon and the time of detonation. Granted it's only maybe twenty seconds but they could still get off a distress call in that time. I suggest we first send a canister of mefentanyl. The Jaffa would be knocked out almost immediately and wouldn't have time alert their superiors to call for help."

"That isn't exactly safe. People still die from that stuff," protested Carter.

"We've managed to reduce the casualty numbers from fifteen to three percent since the Russians first introduced it in 2002," replied Hailey.

"Jaffa are highly resistant to chemical agents," reminded Teal'c, glad that these people were willing to consider a non-lethal weapon. "This mefentanyl may not be effective."

"True," grumbled the colonel with a frown. "And remember, if they get out a distress call then this entire exercise is pointless and we might not get another chance like this one. In that case we might have to consider something more lethal."

"Nerve gas?" asked Hailey. "I can't authorize that and I doubt my superiors would either even if we had any left. The last of the old US stockpile was destroyed in 2023. What about simple tear-gas? It'll incapacitate the sentries long enough for our teams to come through and knock them out. Jaffa are still fundamentally human and CS-gas should still be effective."

"But that takes six to twenty seconds to take effect in most subjects," replied Silva, shaking her head. "We should use OC-gas instead. It takes effect almost immediately. Teal'c, who would have the communications device?"

"It will be with the most senior ranking Jaffa guard," he replied, remembering his orders regarding Amtes' security. "He will most likely be guarding Amtes in person. As long as the guards at the gate are quickly neutralized he will not know of the attack until this EMP device disables communications."

"What about the bunkers?" asked Carter. "They might be out of range for the gas."

"Then we have to take them out at the same time as the guards at the gate," said Silva. "What about a micro-drone? It's small enough to get through without attracting attention. It can paint the bunkers then we toss through the gas canister and fire off the missiles. The whole thing will be over in maybe ten seconds. And I bet most of the Jaffa will spend that time wondering what the hell is going on. Also it's likely the guy in charge would wait until he knows what's happening before calling for reinforcements."

"That is true, Colonel Silva," agreed Teal'c. As first prime he hadn't hesitated to punish any of his warriors that wasted his time calling for help without first understanding and evaluating the threat they were facing. "What is more, the garrison commander on Hesquiat will be somewhat reluctant to call for aid. I sent him there as punishment due to incompetence," he added, a small smile crossing his face.

"There you go," concluded the colonel with a grin. "The garrison probably won't have time to get their shit together before the EMP knocks everything out. So all this stuff with the gas and missiles is just insurance."

"Then you have a go colonel," said Hailey with a nod. "Teal'c I want you to accompany SG-1 for this mission," she added. This had been discussed during the break and Silva had agreed to it. It would be a final test of loyalty for their defector and he would also be useful in their salvage efforts.

For his part Teal'c was well aware of what the mission would mean. He was not looking forward to killing his fellow Jaffa but it was something he'd made peace with long ago. At least in this case they would be dying for the cause of freedom. It was a far better death than one in service to the false gods. "I will prove myself during this mission. Have no doubt."

"Excellent," nodded Hailey as she stood up. "Dismissed."

* * *

There was an almost electric anticipation running throughout the facility as preparations for the mission were nearing completion. Silva had noted this in her team mates as they assembled. This would be the first true offensive action against an enemy that had held the galaxy in terror for god only knew how long.

Currently they were waiting in the control room on sub-level thirty six. Unlike its cousin eight levels above, this facility was more akin to the fire control center of a naval destroyer, appropriate considering the system emplaced beyond the armored windows. When the SGC had first come online, they'd realized that while the original embarkation room, once renovated into something more aesthetically pleasing, would serve well enough for small deployments and diplomatic receptions. However trying to fit a company of marines through it would be a nightmare and god help them if they wanted to send any kind of vehicle or aircraft. With those limitations in mind several dedicated embarkation facilities had been built in the newly excavated levels below with the stargate traveling between them on a purpose-built superconducting rail.

The first held the SGC's new mass embarkation facility. A cavernous room fifteen meters tall and a hundred and fifty deep, this facility was created so that they could store and deploy vehicles and aircraft and was linked to the surface through a heavily fortified tunnel. It was also perfect for deploying large numbers of infantry without crowding them into the surrounding hallways. Unfortunately it was not yet completed, much to the annoyance of everyone else who had to put up with the constant construction noise.

Far below the SGC sat what they had termed 'The Vault'. Even with both a reinforced iris and a plasma window, there still existed a chance that an attacker could punch through their defenses. In such an event the Stargate could be lowered into the heavily reinforced titanium box, located two hundred meters below the lowest level of the facility. It was the final line of defense short of the nuclear self-destruct.

Finally located on the lowest level of the SGC but far above the vault was the new Hydra Missile Bay. Even before Teal'c had been captured, General Hailey had recognized that they might have to engage an enemy off-world with precision firepower. In modern combat that task was chiefly handled by cruise missiles and so too would it be here. The new system would use the Stargate as a strategic launch platform, bombarding an enemy thousands of light years distant with impunity, able to deploy both conventional and nuclear ordinance as required.

When the SGC's technical staff had received the general's requirements they had turned to one of the systems developed during the Cold War for their answer. Designed for the B-52 Stratofortress, the Common Strategic Rotary Launcher had formed the basis of the Hydra system. Three of the massive mechanical contraptions sat facing the Stargate in a semi-circular formation, each attached to its own ammunition hopper that would reload the individual cells as they reached to bottom of their rotation. Each 'barrel' of the weapon was filled with a single SGM-109M Tomahawk cruise missile, a modified variant of the iconic weapon designed for use through the Stargate.

Silva watched as technicians finished loading the custom EMP missile into the top most cell of the center launcher, the original missile in its pressurized container having already been placed back in the launcher's attendant hopper. While she'd seen all sorts of weapon systems during her service she had to admit that the monster that lay before her was one of the most impressive. And she was not alone in that assessment. Both Fareed and Simmons were staring wide-eyed at the contraption while Adrienne…

"Hot damn I think I'm in love," exclaimed the sniper. Myra swore there was some drool running down the side of her mouth.

"Pretty goddamn impressive," agreed Roger. "Too bad we can't tell anyone about it though."

"Let's hope the Jaffa think so too," added General Hailey as she walked up behind them. Turning to one of the technicians she continued, "How are we doing sergeant?"

"We're almost ready ma'am," he replied as he examined the data on his console. Already they could see the technicians leaving the room in preparation for launch. "We've rigged up a robotic arm that'll throw the gas canister through first. Don't want to be in there during launch."

"Good. Begin the dialing sequence as soon as you're ready," replied the general.

"I guess that's our cue," said Silva as her team headed for the door.

"Good luck colonel," said Hailey with a nod.

"Thanks general," she replied as SG-1 exited the control center and walked the short distance to a hermetically sealed blast door. When in operation the Hydra had to be isolated from the rest of the facility to prevent the exhaust from asphyxiating everyone. Nodding to the commanding officer of SG teams two and three, the Colonel turned her attention to the wall mounted display that showed the inside of the room.

As the gate reached chevron five, a large blast door slid closed over the control room windows to protect the operators from the back-blast. Moments later the stargate flared to life.

"Send the drone," ordered Hailey.

From a pedestal a tiny machine took fight. Designed for infiltrating into the most sensitive areas, the Fly was actually modeled after its namesake. Plunging into the event horizon, it emerged a few seconds later on a planet almost a thousand light years distant and began its mission. Assessing its immediate surroundings it sprinted to and landed on the branch of a nearby tree, its electronic eyes taking in everything around it and relaying it back to its masters.

"Object has arrived," reported the technician. "We have seven Jaffa guarding the gate. I don't think they've noticed the drone. I'm also seeing five bunkers as reported with a total of sixteen heat signatures between them. Target coordinates locked."

"Fire."

* * *

Tel'tor was one of the youngest warriors in service to Apophis. Having only earned his station a month earlier, he had been assigned to guard the domain of Amtes. It had not been his first choice of assignments but he went where he was ordered. The senior master in charge of the garrison was not a pleasant man to deal with, as he himself had learned almost immediately upon arriving. Master Sek'lok constantly reminded them that this assignment was beneath him and his talent was being wasted here. Rumor had it that he'd offended Master Teal'c in some way and this assignment was intended to be a kind of purgatory for the arrogant fool. If his attitude was anything to go by then the rumors were probably correct.

He was returning to his post after having spent the last hour being dressed down by Sek'lok for some imagined slight. His job guarding the chappa'ai was at least better than guarding the compound. The fresh air kept one awake and Hesquiat was a beautiful world, far more pleasant than his native Chulak. Approaching the portal he was just in time to see it activate, its great wave collapsing into the shimmering pool. Truly the magic of the gods was spectacular to witness.

The garrison wasn't overly concerned by the activation. Only a fool would attack a world so deep within their god's territory and so the traveler was most likely some priest or one of the minor gods under Apophis coming to see Amtes.

Almost twenty seconds passed before something exited the chappa'ai. The silvery canister clattered down the stone steps, coming to rest at the feet of one of the sentries who looked down at it curiously. Tel'tor watched in confusion as the strange device began dispensing a cloud of yellowish gas. That confusion turned to panic as the gathered Jaffa began screaming and clutching their faces in pain.

Before he could react a white tube came screaming through the portal trailing flame and smoke. It ascended into the sky only to be followed a second later by another. Unlike the first this one headed straight for the nearest of the fortified bunkers, slamming into it in a massive explosion. Standing in stunned surprise he watched as the remaining bunkers were destroyed in similar fashion. A bright flash from the sky followed, his ma'tok staff sparking in reply.

Gathering his wits he rushed to help his fallen companions. The ones in the bunkers were most assuredly dead but those at the gate were still rolling around and moaning. He had almost reached the first when a human came running through the chappa'ai. Recognizing the threat he brought his weapon to bear while triggering the charging sequence. Lining up the heavy staff he pulled the firing lever, aiming for the chest of the interloper. It took him a moment to realize that the head of his weapon hadn't even opened.

"Put it down unless you have a death wish," commanded the human, a woman aiming a boxy black weapon at him.

Tel'tor refused to believe his luck, hammering on the trigger several more times before realizing it was futile. Screaming in rage and zeal he charged the offensive human. He didn't need a bolt of his god's wrath to kill this woman. He would cave her skull in with his bare hands.

Myra watched the charging Jaffa, a small grin spreading across her lips. From behind her team watched the scene in amusement, able to interpret her intentions from body language alone while moving to cover her just in case. It wasn't the first time some idiot had tried something like this and their leader had developed a rather amusing way of dealing with it. As the Jaffa came close she ducked to the side, dodging his staff and tripping him in the process. It was like watching a matador handle a charging bull. He went plowing into the ground like a sack of potatoes, his weapon flying from his hands.

"Oops," smirked the colonel with a huge grin. "That looks like it hurt," she added sarcastically, her team chuckling behind her while Teal'c looked on in pity.

Tel'tor exploded to his feet in anger only to come face to face with the First Prime of Apophis himself. It was almost enough for him to loose bladder control, such was his terror and humiliation. "Master Teal'c! I… um."

"I think you've made a new friend there Teal'c," commented the human that had tripped him. "Should we keep him?"

The reply from the Jaffa master was a raised eyebrow. "He is not a pet Colonel Silva."

"I don't know," added another human, a small male with shifting eyes, "he looks like an overexcited puppy to me. Next thing we know he'll be dragging his ass sideways across the clearing." The other humans burst out laughing while one of the intruders grabbed his wrists and forced them behind his back. Around them SG-2 and SG-3 continued their effort to secure the perimeter, several of them checking for survivors among the ruins of the bunkers.

Tel'tor was too stunned by the situation to resist. When the cold plastic ties closed around his wrists it was enough to snap him out of his torpor. "What is happening? Why…," he began before the situation finally settled in. Teal'c, the greatest warrior of Apophis had betrayed him. "Shol'va! Betrayer! You will burn in Netu for this!"

"Settle down," said the human leader as she forced him to his knees. "We don't want you to hurt yourself."

"That would indeed be unfortunate," agreed the traitorous Jaffa before he turned to his young former subordinate. "Did the garrison send a distress call?"

"I won't tell you anything shol'va," he replied, loathing filling his voice. "Apophis will strike you down for this."

The human woman, Silva, looked around for a second. "So should we be worried about lightning falling from the sky Teal'c? Cause if that's the case I'll take a step back so I don't get fried."

The elder Jaffa seemed to take her sarcasm in stride, again raising that single eyebrow. "I do not believe that will be necessary Colonel Silva."

"Didn't think so. Ok people, let's get these guys secured and stripped of weapons. Colonel Endler," she said, referring to the leader of SG-3, "have two of your men remain behind to cover the prisoners and watch the gate. Everyone else will follow SG-1. Remember we want to take this place as intact as possible so don't blow the crap out of anything you don't have to."

"Roger that," agreed Endler as he turned to his men. "Ok people, let's get these guys under control."

"Silva to SG-Actual," said the colonel, seemingly to herself.

"SG-Actual here colonel," replied the voice of the general over their com-links. For most of the Earth personnel that meant their cochlear implants. "Go ahead."

"Stargate has been secured. We do not have confirmation as to whether or not they have called for reinforcements. We're going to move on the airfield. Request you keep the Stargate active to ensure off-world reinforcements cannot come through," added the colonel, borrowing a page from one of the Goa'uld's favorite tactics when attacking another world.

"Roger that colonel," replied SG-Actual, seemingly amused by her subordinate's idea. "We'll maintain the connection for another thirty-five mikes and redial as needed."

"Roger SG-Actual. Ok people, move out."

* * *

Master Sek'lok was brooding again. It had become his default mood ever since this humiliation had been heaped upon him. It infuriated him that that fool Teal'c didn't appreciate his worth. He had led this cadre to victory during the incursion of Marris III, striking down countless of Ba'al's Jaffa. So what if he had taken almost eighty percent casualties. They had died fighting Apophis' enemies. And instead of rewarding him for his actions, Teal'c had sent him to this cursed planet to guard a Goa'uld who spent her time tinkering with machines and fornicating with her Lo'taur. Having to listen to that night after night was worse than any torture he'd ever experienced.

His dark thoughts were interrupted by explosions that echoed down the valley. Checking his weapon he rushed outside. Amtes' retreat was located in a clearing almost a hundred meters above the valley floor on a natural shelf of one the surrounding mountains. It made it easy to survey the area and also made for a defensible position. Whatever his faults Teal'c had a very apt strategic mind and his placement of the retreat and was proof of that.

The sight that greeted him was one of utter chaos. Fire poured from craters where the bunkers had once stood and he could see the stargate active, unknown humans pouring from its shimmering pool. Realizing the threat he reached for his communicator only to have the small device practically explode as a bright flash erupted from high above.

"What is happening?" demanded his charge as she exited the structure, observing the scene below.

"Lord Amtes, we have been attacked," he replied lamely, knowing little more.

"I can see that," she replied with a sigh. Why Apophis had inflicted this incompetent clod on her she would never know. "Have you sent a distress call?"

"I am unable. My communicator exploded just a moment ago."

That caught the Goa'uld's attention. "What exactly happened?"

"There was a bright flash of light from the sky. The communicator exploded and my ma'tok also sparked. Now it does not function."

"Fascinating," she replied unhelpfully. While the Jaffa before her was clueless she already had an idea what was happening. Turning around she reentered her sanctuary, making a beeline for her private study. Entering the room she was unsurprised to see her computer offline. Attempts to restart it failed to produce any results. The answer was obvious.

"An electromagnetic pulse. Very interesting," she said to herself in admiration. It was a concept she'd been considering for some time. Much of Goa'uld technology was vulnerable to electromagnetic weaponry, a vulnerability that had long been ignored. Such weapons lacked the intimidation factor that so many of her patrons preferred and so had been passed over for more showy inventions. Clearly whoever was attacking didn't care about appearances.

"What is happening mistress?" asked a voice from the doorway. Turning she noticed her Lo'taur standing there, a worried look on his face.

"We are under attack Railor," she replied. "Come, help me gather my research," she continued, pulling data crystals from a nearby server and placing them in a case. He joined her a second later, knowing the value she placed on the data contained within.

"Do you think the Jaffa can stop them?" he asked suddenly.

"I doubt it. Whoever is attacking has been very clever. They have used a weapon that destroys electronics and in doing so disabled the Jaffa's weapons. I doubt even my kara'kesh still functions," she replied, gesturing to the ribbon device lying on her desk. "And there will be no help from off-world either. The attack has also disabled communications. Our only chance is to hope that the Jaffa keep them busy enough for us to escape."

As if to emphasize her point, the sound of another explosion swept through the retreat. "If they don't destroy our transport first," she added.

* * *

There was something to be said for fighting an enemy that couldn't fight back. The thought echoed through Vega's mind as she took the head off another Jaffa. It was something she'd learned long ago as a sniper. Like hunting a deer that didn't know you were there, the moment of surprise when you pulled the trigger and the rush you felt when its life ended. She reminded herself for the umpteenth time that these thoughts were bad, that the psychologists she'd been forced to see wouldn't approve of her thinking this way. And that her attitude had held her back for years as she was passed up for promotions. But how could something that felt so good be wrong?

"You still with us Adrienne?" asked the colonel from beside her.

"Yeah," she replied, snapped out of her trance by her superior's voice. Myra was why she was still in the service. Were it not for her, she would've been kicked out of the service and gone mercenary years ago. And, if she was honest with herself, she would've probably been dead by now if she had. "I'm good."

They were currently engaging the Jaffa that had been guarding the airfield. Below they could see the assorted Goa'uld spacecraft, the Tara'jeet death gliders on their little platforms next to the hulking Al'kesh sitting on the ground. Behind them were the two Tel'tak cargo shuttles, their snubbed nosed forms waiting to evacuate Amtes should she ever arrive. Unlike the rest of the compound, the defenders here had functional weapons, doubtlessly shielded from the EMP by the ships themselves. The bluff they were resting on was being constantly pelted by fire but they were well into defilade, shielded by rock thanks to the poor penetration capabilities of plasma weaponry. Behind them the cracks of each team's snipers sounded, picking off any Jaffa who was foolish enough to expose himself.

The sound of discharging plasma was overpowered by the shrilling of one of the gliders as it came to life; a Jaffa somehow having managed to make it into its cockpit without being cut down. The gull-winged fighter shot off its platform, its wings locking into flight position as it tried to gain enough distance to begin a strafing run. One of SG-2's operators took note of the threat and fired a missile from his backpack launcher. It impacted its target before it could even begin its turn, the kinetic energy of the missile almost enough to rip the flimsy fighter in half before the warhead detonated, showing the valley floor in flaming debris.

But the distraction of the first glider was enough for three more to come to life, each scrambling in a different direction in hopes of avoiding the fate of their brother. Each was duly dealt with by another missile apiece, their wreckage starting several small fires where it landed. By this point they had eliminated the remaining Jaffa below, the last of them having died trying to board the Al'kesh.

"Clear!" announced Silva as she surveyed the area for survivors. The orbiting drones made it clear that there weren't any but nothing could beat the good-old mark one eyeball. "Colonel Fisher, I want you to take your men and sweep the left Tel'tak," she ordered; the commander of SG-2 nodding in agreement. "Colonel Endler, do the same for the other one. Once finished check the gliders. SG-1 has the Al'kesh. Snipers, cover us until we've secured the airfield and then rejoin your teams. Move out."

All three teams stood and rushed down the hill, the nano-adhesive on the bottoms of their boots ensuring none of them slipped. SG-1 rushed towards the bottom hatch of the Al'kesh, stacking up at the bottom of the ramp. Myra tried to get a thermal image of the inside but whatever the bomber was made of was reflecting her scans. Reaching into her combat harness she withdrew a flashbang. "On three people," she said, throwing the grenade up the ramp. The grenade detonated just as she said, "Three!"

Rushing up the ramp, they came face to face with a single Jaffa clutching his ears as he stumbled around. Silva, maintaining their momentum, caught him under the chin with the butt of her rifle, knocking him to the ground unconscious. Thundering down the central corridor, they burst into the cockpit only to find it empty.

"Well that was anti-climactic," commented Simmons as he examined the controls.

"Don't look a gift horse in the mouth," replied Fareed as he swept the rest of the room for any potential hiding spots. "Clear."

"Good," replied the colonel as she turned around and walked back to their greeter. Bending down she secured the unconscious warrior's hands behind his back before lifting him into a fireman's carry and walking down the ramp. "Someone mine this hatch. Don't want to lose this thing."

"Got it," replied Adrienne as she entered the ship. She fished a claymore out of her backpack and began setting it up. Within moments the smart munition was attached to a nearby wall, its sensor set to detonate if it detected anyone without a valid IFF tag.

"Teal'c can you tell if they used this thing to send off a distress call?" asked Simmons as he poked the main control sphere.

"I will check," said the stoic Jaffa as he took a seat in the pilot's chair. So far he'd been impressed by these humans. They had gone through the defending Jaffa like demons, leaving only the dead and unconscious in their wake. There was none of the boasting that some Jaffa engaged in, no scream and leap ambushes. Just a quiet professionalism that he admired. After several moments he brought up the HUD and reviewed the communications log. "This vessel has not sent a transmission in some time."

"Good. We'll check the Tel'taks and to make sure they haven't either. What about the gliders?" asked Silva as she walked back into the cockpit.

"Death gliders do not have the ability to communicate beyond a limited distance. Certainly not over the many light years it would take to send a distress call."

Exiting the Al'kesh, SG-1 was greeted by the commanders of the other teams, their commands having already cleared the smaller cargo shuttles.

"We've rigged the Tel'taks with claymores," reported Colonel Endler, clearly thinking along the same lines as Silva.

"Good," she replied. "And the gliders?"

"Cleared and rigged to blow," reported Fisher with a grin. "C4 charge in the cockpits under the seats. Should be enough to take them down if they become a problem."

"Excellent. Teal'c, go check the shuttles."

"I can take one of them boss," commented Simmons. "I watched what Teal'c did in that Al'kesh. Seems simple enough."

"You can't read Goa'uld," she replied.

"No, but I do have an ancient Egyptian translation program. Should work well enough."

"Fine," replied the colonel as her tech-head rushed off towards the other transport. After a few minutes they both returned and confirmed there hadn't been a signal transmitted. "Ok people, all that's left is the main compound," she said as she accessed the recon data from their drones. A holographic map projected from her arm showing the surrounding area. The SGC personnel were denoted by blue diamonds while the estimated location of their enemies was shown by red triangles. "Looks like they're setting up an ambush between here and our target. No idea if they have working weapons but I'd like to avoid it all the same."

"I wonder who these two are off on their own," commented Endler as he gestured to two isolated enemies.

"Don't know," replied Silva with a smirk. "Send a couple of your men to capture them and we'll find out."

"With pleasure," he replied, nodding to two of his command who dashed off.

"As for the rest… SG-Actual? You guys still got your ears on?"

"We read you colonel," replied the general.

"I might need a missile strike on the following coordinates. Wait for my command."

"Roger that colonel. We'll be ready."

"Let's get eyes on the target before taking it out. We don't want to kill Amtes by accident," added Silva, and answering the questioning looks she was receiving.

* * *

The explosions had died down, much to Amtes' concern. She'd ordered that fool Sek'lok to ambush the invaders on their way to her compound, hopefully drawing them away from the Tel'taks and allowing their escape. The sheer ferocity of the assault had ruled out an attack by another Goa'uld. No Goa'uld would move this fast, not even Anubis and his Kull.

"Hurry Railor, we're almost there," she said, carefully readjusting the heavy case that she'd slung over her shoulder. Inside lay her lifetime's work, centuries of theories, designs and proposals, all too few of which had come to fruition. She idly wondered why she continued working for her patrons, many of whom were too full of themselves to understand what she offered. The Goa'uld didn't appreciate technology as they should, too interested in beating each other into bloody pulps and lording over the remains.

"FREEZE!" shouted a voice from behind. Goa'uld and Lo'taur both whirled around, coming face to face with a pair of humans that had hidden in the undergrowth. Both were armed and clearly ready to kill them if they made the slightest move. As she was unarmed, Amtes slowly raised her hands, Railor doing the same. "Identify yourselves," barked the same human.

"I am the Great God Amtes," replied the scientist in her most melodramatic voice. "How dare you threaten me!" Over the centuries she'd become adept at reading human facial expressions. And now she could see surprise mixed with incredulousness on this human, followed by amusement.

"SG-2 Delta to Alpha," said Major Pankhurst into his sub-vocal transmitter.

"Go ahead John," replied Colonel Endler.

"We've got the two tangos off by themselves. One of them is claiming to be Amtes."

"Roger that major. Secure them both and make sure you keep an eye on her. Goa'uld like to jump hosts if they're in trouble."

"Yes sir," replied the major as he signed off. "Ok, both of you. I want you to place those cases on the ground slowly.

Amtes saw no choice. She had no doubt that these humans would kill her if she resisted. Nor did she want to see her work lost. Nodding to her Lo'taur, she slowly brought the shoulder strap over her head and placed her data on the ground.

"Now back away and interlace your fingers on the back of your heads," ordered the major. When both of them complied he nodded to his companion, Sergeant Jessica Gleason. "Secure them both. I'll cover you.

The sergeant approached her, her weapon hanging from her chest but her hand on her sidearm. She stopped a few steps in from of her and just looked at her for a second before speaking. "Just so you know if you try anything I'll put a round through your head."

"I understand," replied Amtes. She was no fool.

"Good," replied Jessica as she walked behind and secured her wrists with some sort of binders. A moment later Railor received the same treatment.

"Search them," ordered Pankhurst.

Amtes felt the sergeant patting her down. It was a humiliation such as she had never suffered. But she held her tongue. Antagonizing these two would only serve to worsen her situation.

"They're clean."

"Good. Ok, we're going to take you both back to the Stargate. If you continue cooperating with us you don't have anything to worry about. Resist and you'll regret it," said the major. "Do you understand?"

"We do," answered Amtes.

"Good. Move out."

* * *

Sek'lok could feel the end coming. The explosions and gunfire had stopped yet there was a feeling in the air that spoke of impending violence and death. He'd experienced this sensation before but from the other side, when he knew his enemies were about to break. Now that the situation was reversed, he was beginning to understand the terror of it all.

Amtes had ordered him to defend her retreat against any and all attempts to capture it. He'd seen Goa'uld give such orders before. They were to serve as a distraction while she made her escape. And despite his piety he resented being placed in this situation. His life was worth more than this. It had to be. Still it was not an opinion that was shared by his fellow Jaffa. Many were barely into adulthood, still carrying their first prim'ta and filled with religious fervor. They'd fight to the death and expected him to do no less.

"My lord, our defenses are prepared," announced one of his underlings.

The Jaffa master nodded, suppressing a derisive snort. They'd chosen a narrow point in the valley to make their stand and had established breastwork fortifications. He doubted they'd hold for more than a few minutes against the invaders. Worse still, of the thirty-nine remaining Jaffa, only sixteen had functioning weapons and all but seven of those were zat'nik'tels. Whatever foul magicks the invaders had used had proven quite effective at neutralizing them.

His thoughts were interrupted by a buzzing sound coming from above. Looking up he could see a small spherical machine descending, coming to a hover several meters in front of him. Raising his hands to forestall any attack on the curious device, he approached the small machine. It began glowing and a slightly transparent life size image of one of the invaders materializing a moment later. The human looked around a moment before focusing on him.

"Are you the commander of the defending forces?" asked the woman.

"I am Master Sek'lok, servant of the great god Apophis. His wrath will be terrible for your transgressions."

The human before him simply shrugged. "We'll take that chance. My current problem is you and your men. Surrender and you'll be well treated."

"They are too cowardly to face us," shouted one of his subordinates from behind, his comrades sneering in agreement. "You send machines to do the job of real warriors."

The woman seemed to focus her attention on the speaker before continuing, her tone dripping sarcasm. "Am I supposed to take that as an insult to my honor and engage you in combat? That's not going to happen. If you do not surrender within two minutes I'll order a missile strike on your position. There will be no combat, no final moment of glory, no retreat. I will not risk the lives of my men trying to take your position or give you a chance to gain 'honor' by taking some of us down as your final act. I'll simply exterminate you and continue my mission."

"You are a coward," replied Sek'lok, somewhat aghast by this strange woman's words. "You defile everything that comes with being a warrior."

"I never claimed to be a warrior. I am a soldier. My job is to accomplish my mission with as few losses and as little collateral damage as possible. If it wasn't for Amtes, her data and the spacecraft landed here we would've simply bombarded this valley until none of you were left alive. We no longer stick to your obsolete concept of 'honor'. This is war and war is about efficiency and objectives. That having been said I'm not a butcher. Surrender." The image of the human disappeared leaving the Jaffa aghast at their content. It was anathema to everything they'd been taught and it brought up a deep hatred from within their souls.

Still it was a chance to survive and Sek'lok was nothing if not a survivor. Nor had he been offered surrender before. Jaffa were expected and conditioned from birth to fight to the last. And having looked into the woman's cold, calculating eyes; he had no doubt that she'd do exactly as she'd promised. But he'd also seen that there was compassion there. She didn't want to kill them but she would if they resisted.

Turning to his men he was just in time to see a plasma bolt slam into the silently hovering drone; molten metals and plastics spraying the surrounding area. "These heretics must die for their transgressions," snarled the Jaffa that had fired, the same one as had reported the condition of their defenses.

Sek'lok just stood there, staring at the Jaffa, his expression unreadable. He knew there could be no surrender now. With a deep sigh he nodded his head. "Indeed young one. We will fight these trespassers until none of them remain."

As his men prepared themselves to face the enemy he considered that in his last moments he'd learned the lesson that had failed him a year earlier. He'd placed the survival of his men over his own pride, if only for a moment. He'd been willing to surrender, to live in shame instead of dying for a hopeless cause. As the shrilling scream of the incoming missile sounded from above, he made peace with his decisions. He may not have been able to stop this but at least, in the end, he'd understood why he should have tried.

Sek'lok of Chulak felt the world become incredibly hot, then darkness descended.

Myra watched the missile impact, the feed going white for a moment before clearing. Shaking her head she let out a long sigh. What a needless waste of life. But she'd made her intentions clear. She'd offered surrender and it had been rejected. Her conscience was clear. Deactivating the feed she turned to her men.

"Move out."


End file.
